Sword Art Online Volume 2 Chapter 3 ( Side Story )

Sword Art Online Light Novels

- Volume 2 : SAO Side Story Aincrad

- You can see sword art online Volume 2 just :

Volume 2

Morning Dew Girl (Aincrad 22nd Floor, October 2024)

Part 1

Asuna has always set her morning alarm to seven-fifty.

If you were to ask why it's at such a vague time, it's because Kirito's morning alarm goes off right at eight. Waking up ten minutes beforehand and looking at him, asleep beside her while she's still in bed, is a hobby of hers.

This morning, Asuna once again woke up to the mellow sound of woodwind instruments and continued lying down, gazing at Kirito's sleeping face while resting her head on her hands.

She fell in love half a year ago. They became clearing partners two weeks ago. And only a mere six days had passed since they got married and moved here, within the forest of the twenty-second floor. Despite being her most beloved, she was certainly still in the dark about many things related to Kirito. For one, as she peered over his sleeping face, she gradually became less sure of his age.

Just a while back, due to his uncaring and aloof nature, she had figured that he should be a little older than her. However, the sight of Kirito, deep in sleep, extruded such naive innocence, that he could only look like a young boy, no older than her.

Asking for something like his age probably— would not be a problem. However, breaching into affairs of the real world was frowned upon, and besides, the two of them were already husband and wife. Rather than age, to meet again after returning to the real world, exchanging information from actual names and addresses to contact details, would be much more reliable.

However, Asuna was not quite able to bring herself to say that out loud.

She was afraid that after speaking of matters from the real world, this «married life» would feel like nothing more than a flimsy figment of her imagination. To the current Asuna, her single, most important reality, were these gentle days in this forested home; even if it became impossible to escape from this world, with their actual bodies welcoming death, she would still be satisfied, being able to continue living this way till the very end, passing on without regrets.

That was why she would not wake up from this dream just yet— Thinking so, Asuna softly stretched out her hand and caressed the sleeping Kirito's face.

Even so, it sure was a childish sleeping face.

There was certainly no need to doubt Kirito's strength at that moment. The extraordinary amount of experience accumulated from playing through the beta test period, as well as the numerical stats acquired through continuous fighting, and to use those effectively, his judgment and determination. He might have lost to the leader of the Knights of the Blood, «Holy Sword» Heathcliff, but Kirito was the strongest player that Asuna knew of. Regardless of how grim the battlefield may get, she would never feel nervous with him by her side.

However, as she gazed at the curled up Kirito lying down, somehow, the feeling that he was just like a naive and fragile little brother boiled up within her, struggling to burst out from her chest. The feeling that she must protect him.

Gently breathing, Asuna leaned over, covering Kirito's body with her arm. She softly whispered.

"Kirito-kun... I love you. Stay with me forever, alright?"

At that moment, Kirito trembled lightly, slowly opening his eyelids. The couple exchanged glances, with their faces right before each other.

"Waa!!"

Asuna pulled back frantically. Shifting to a kneeling posture on the bed, she spoke as her face blushed scarlet.

"Go-Good morning, Kirito-kun. ...Did you... hear that just now...?"

"Good morning. Just now... eh, did something happen?"

Facing the Kirito, who rose up and replied while stifling a yawn, Asuna wildly flailed her hands around.

"N-No, nothing happened!"

Finishing a breakfast of sunny-side-up eggs with rye bread, salad, and coffee and tidying up the table in a couple of seconds, Asuna clapped her hands together.

"Well! Where shall we play today?"

"Oh, you."

And Kirito gave a wry smile.

"Don't talk about something like that so bluntly,"

"But everyday has been so much fun, you know."

These were Asuna's real and pure thoughts.

Just thinking back brought out painful memories, but during the one and a half years, from the time she became a prisoner of SAO to when she fell in love with Kirito, Asuna had forged and hardened her heart.

Sacrificing sleep to strengthen her skill levels, being chosen as the sub-leader of the clearing guild, Knights of the Blood, she had plunged into the labyrinths at a pace fast enough to cause even members to give up at times.

All that was in her heart was solely to clear the game and escape; thus, she concluded that all other activities unrelated to that cause were useless.

With these thoughts running through her mind, Asuna could not help but regret not being able to chance upon Kirito earlier. The days after meeting him were so vibrant, so filled with surprises that they surpassed even her previous life in the real world. If it was with him, the time spent here could all be considered rare experiences.

That was why to Asuna, finally being able to get a day where both of them could pass time together, each and every second could be thought of as a precious jewel in itself. She wanted to go, as a couple, to more and more places together and talk about many different topics.

Asuna placed her hands on her waist and spoke while pouting.

"Then doesn't Kirito-kun want to go somewhere and play?"

In response to that, Kirito grinned broadly and waved his left hand, calling out a map. Switching it to its visible mode, he presented it to Asuna. The floor's arrangement of forests and lakes were displayed on it.

"Right about here."

What was pointed out was a corner of a forest, not too far away from their home.

Being one of the lower floors, the twenty-second floor was naturally quite wide. The diameter of the entire area was possibly over eight kilometers long. A humongous lake existed in the middle and to the southern coast lay the main town, «Coral» Village. On the northern coast was the labyrinth. The rest of the area was covered by a beautiful coniferous forest. The little home belonging to Asuna and Kirito was in an area on the southern edge of the floor, and what Kirito was currently pointing to was to the north-east, roughly two kilometers away.

"Well, it's about a rumor I heard about in the village yesterday... In this part, where the forest thickens... "It" seems to come out."

"Hah?"

To the subtly smiling Kirito, Asuna doubtfully responded.

"What does?"

"...A ghost."

Rendered speechless for a moment, she timidly asked.

"...That means, a monster of the Astral type? Something like a wraith or a banshee?"

"Nope, it's the real thing. A player... that is, a human spirit. Apparently a female."

"Aah..."

Asuna involuntarily winced. Towards topics like this, Asuna was confident only of being affected worse than the average person. She was bad enough with them to think up random reasons to ditch the clearing of the old castle labyrinth, stretched over the sixty-fifth and sixty-sixth floors, renowned for its horror theme.

"B-But you see, this is the virtual world of a game. Something like— a ghost coming out, something like that could never happen."

Forcing herself to keep her smile, she started protesting vehemently.

"Just how true is that, I wonder..."

But Kirito, who knew that Asuna was weak against ghosts, enthusiastically went on the offense.

"For example... A player who died with unfulfilled regrets, possessing the Nerve Gear still attached and switched on... wandering through the field, night after night..."

"Stop th—!"

"Wahaha, sorry about that, it was just a bad joke. Well, I doubt that a spirit will really appear, but if we're going somewhere, it's best to head for a place with a higher chance of something interesting happening, right?"

"Aaah..."

Curling her lips into a pout, Asuna shifted her focus outside the window.

Despite winter soon approaching, the weather sure was fine. The sunlight seemed warm and gentle, pouring down onto the garden's lawn. A time most unsuitable for events such as the appearance of a ghost. Due to how Aincrad was structured, although it was impossible to see the sun directly except during early morning and evening, thanks to the adequate ambient lighting, the field was vividly lit up.

Asuna turned back towards Kirito and replied, with her head held up high.

"Alright, let's go. To prove that there's no way something like a ghost could actually exist."

"And that's that. —If we don't find it today, we'll go in the middle of the night next time, yeah?"

"No way!! ...I won't be making any food for a bully like that."

"Gah, scratch that. You didn't hear anything."

Giving Kirito one final scowl, Asuna broke into a grin and laughed.

"Well, let's finish up the preparations. I'll be grilling the fish, so Kirito-kun, cut the bread, okay?"

Quickly stuffing a lunch box with fish burgers, it was nine o'clock in the morning when they left the house.

Stepping onto the lawn in the garden, Asuna turned back to Kirito and spoke.

"Hey, let me ride on your shoulders."

"Let you ride on my shoulders!?"

Kirito replied wildly, returning the question.

"You see, always looking from the same height gets boring. It should be a piece of cake with Kirito-kun's physical strength stat, right?"

"Well, that might be true... Geez, just how old are you..."

"Age doesn't have anything to do with it! Isn't it fine? It's not like anyone is watching."

"Al-Alright, I guess.."

Astounded, Kirito squatted down and turned his back towards Asuna while shaking his head. Raising her skirt, she lifted her legs onto his shoulders.

"There we go. But I'll be sure to hit you if you look back, alright."

"Aren't you being unreasonable...?"

Grumbling about the situation, Kirito nimbly rose, resulting in an instant rise in the point of view.

"Waa! Look, you can even see the lake from here!"

"I can't see it!!"

"Then I'll do it for you later too."

"..."

Placing her hands on Kirito's head, who was slumped over with exhaustion over the current events, Asuna spoke.

"Now, it's time to depart! Set a course, north by north-east!"

Laughing cheerfully aboard the shoulders of Kirito, who was steadily walking forward, Asuna was able to grasp how precious these days were, being able to live together. She could wholeheartedly believe that this was the time she had felt most «alive» in all the seventeen years of her life.

Strolling along the path— well, Kirito was the only one who was actually put in effort, but— After about ten minutes, one of the numerous lakes dotting the twenty-second floor finally came into view. Perhaps tempted by the gentle weather, there were already several players who were there since morning, casting into the lake, lures dangling in the water. The path curled around the lake, heading uphill, quite a distance away from the lake shore. But as they approached, players who noticed turned towards them and waved. It seemed that everyone they saw smiled at them and some were even laughing aloud.

"...This isn't like no one's watching at all!!"

"Ahaha, so there were people around... Hey, Kirito-kun, wave back at them too."

"There's no way I'll do that."

Despite his complaints, Kirito showed no sign of wanting to let Asuna down. Asuna understood that he was actually amused by the turn of events.

The path soon sloped downwards, towards the right, heading into the deep forest. Weaving through the space between the enormous coniferous trees resembling cedar, towering over all else, they strolled on lightly. The rustling of leaves, the murmuring of a small stream, the chirping of small birds. All of these sounds served as a complement for the forest scenery, dyed in the colors of autumn.

Asuna turned her eyes towards the treetops, which were closer to her than usually.

"The tree sure is big... Hey, do you think you can climb it...?"

"Hm... Mm..."

In response to Asuna's query, Kirito thought about it for a while.

"It's probably within the limits of the system... Want to give it a try?"

"Nah, let's leave that to next time. —Now that I think about climbing."

Asuna stretched her body while mounted on Kirito's shoulders and looked towards the outer edge of Aincrad, through the gaps between the trees.

"Those things around the edge, the ones that look like supports, they are connected all the way to the next floor, right? I wonder... just what would happen if we climbed up those?"

"Ah, I tried that before."

"Eeh!?"

Bending her body, she turned and peered at Kirito.

"Why didn't you invite me too."

"Well, it was from when we didn't know each other that well yet."

"What, that's just because Kirito-kun kept running away."

"...D-Did I really do that?"

"That's right. I always tried inviting you, but you weren't even willing to accompany me for tea."

"Th-That's... We-Well, putting that aside."

Steering the conversation that had started taking a strange turn back onto the original topic, Kirito continued.

"If you were to judge based purely on the results, it was a failure. Climbing from the parts where the rocks were more rugged was surprisingly easy, but after climbing for around eighty meters, an error message came out, going all, 'You can't go beyond this area' and pissing me off."

"Ah ha ha, so as expected, cheating doesn't work, huh."

"It's not a laughing matter. My hands slipped from the shock and I fell magnificently..."

"E-Eh!? Wouldn't you usually die from something like that?"

"Yeah. I thought I was doomed. If I was another three seconds late with that Teleport Crystal, I would have become a new recruit on the list of players killed in action."

"Geez, that was dangerous. Make sure you don't repeat it, alright?"

"That's what I wanted to say!"

Strolling while exchanging their aimless conversation, the forest gradually became more dense. Even the cries of the elusive birds around, as well as the sunlight, leaking through the treetops began to fade away.

As Asuna glanced around once again, she questioned Kirito.

"Hey, that... place in that rumour, just which way is it?"

"Well, it's..."

Kirito waved his hand, checking their bearings on the map.

"Ah, we're pretty close by. We'll reach it in a few minutes."

"Hmm... Hey, about this case, were there any details on it?"

She didn't really want to hear about it, but not knowing anything made her just as uneasy, prompting her to ask.

"Well, about a week back, a woodworking craftsman (woodcraft) player seemed to have come around here to gather some logs. The lumber that can be harvested from this forest are of fairly good quality, and while the player was engrossed in the task, it grew dark... The player hurried to return, but covered by the shade of the trees... there was a fleeting sight of white."

"..."

This was already the limit for Asuna, but Kirito mercilessly continued.

"The player got flustered thinking that it was a monster, but apparently, that wasn't it. It was a human, or rather, a little girl, as the player had mentioned. Long, black hair on white garments. Slowly walking towards a grove of trees. If it wasn't a monster, it could only be a player, the player thought, gazing at her."

"..."

"—There wasn't a cursor."

"Ee..."

A soft cry unintentionally leaked out from her throat.

"There's no way that's possible. Despite thinking that, the player got closer. And even called out to her. Doing so, the girl ceased all movement... she gradually turned around towards him..."

"Th-Th-That's e-eno..."

"Then, the man finally noticed. The girl, as the moonlight shone down onto her white clothes, the trees next to her— could be seen right through her."

"——!!"

Stifling a scream, Asuna gripped onto Kirito's hair tightly.

"It's the end of me if she turns around, he thought and ran away. Finally getting away far enough to spot the light from the village, he figured that he was safe and stopped... wheezing, he turned to look behind..."

"——h!?"

"And there wasn't anyone there. And he lived happily ever after."

"...Ki-Ki-Kirito-kun, you idiot—!!"

Jumping down from his shoulders, she raised her fist, seriously getting ready to let loose a punch at his back— at that very moment.

Deep within the depths of the forest, gloomy, despite it still being midday, at a distance from the pair, something white peeked at them from the side of the trunk of a coniferous tree.

Assaulted by an ominous aura, Asuna became frozen with fear. Even if it was not as much as Kirito's, Asuna's perception skills too, were rather refined through experience. Passively toggling the usage of the skill on, she could improve the clarity of whatever she focuses on.

Something white appeared to be fluttering in the wind. It was not a plant. Nor a rock. But cloth. Or to put it in detail, it was a one piece dress with distinct lines. Peeking out from the hem were two slender, long— legs.

The girl stood still. Almost as Kirito had described, she was a young girl clothed in a white one piece dress, unmoving, silently staring at the couple.

Feeling faint as her consciousness leaked away, Asuna somewhat managed to open her mouth. She let out a raspy whisper.

"Ki... Kirito-kun, over there."

Kirito quickly followed Asuna's gaze. Immediately, he too, froze up.

"Th-This has gotta be a lie..."

The girl did not move. Standing roughly ten meters away from the pair, her gaze was fixed on them. At that very moment, Asuna braced herself, thinking that she would definitely faint if the girl came any closer.

The girl's body swayed— unsteadily. Like a mechanical doll that had run out of energy, she tumbled to the ground, with a motion unlike that of a living being. A light thud gently resonated out.

"There's..."

At that instant, Kirito narrowed his eyes.

"No way something like that's a ghost!!"

And ran as he yelled out.

"Wa-Wait up, Kirito-kun!"

Despite the pleas to stop from Asuna who was left behind, Kirito rushed towards the fallen girl, without even looking back.

"Geez!!"

Asuna reluctantly stood up and chased after him. Despite her heart still trembling, she had never heard of a ghost that could faint and fall over. That could not be anything but a player.

Late by several seconds, upon reaching the shade under the coniferous tree, she found the girl already cradled within Kirito's arms. She was still unconscious. Her eyes, shaded by long eyelashes, were still closed, with her arms feebly hanging straight down. Gazing earnestly over her figure, wrapped in the one piece dress, Asuna reconfirmed that it was not translucent in any way.

"I-Is she alright?"

"Hmm..."

Kirito spoke, peering into the girl's face.

"Well, to be frank... There's no need for breathing in this world, neither do hearts beat..."

Within SAO, most human physiological functions can be reproduced, but are omitted. It is possible to deliberately take a breath, along with the sensation of air flowing through your respiratory tract, but the avatars have no need to breathe subconsciously and will not do so. Likewise, for the beating of the heart, despite the sensation of it beating harder through tension or excitement, there was no way to feel that of others.

"But still, she's not vanishing... so she should still be alive, I guess. But this... certainly is strange..."

Finishing his comment, Kirito tilted his head to the side.

"What's strange?"

"She can't be a ghost, seeing as I can touch her like this. But still, the cursor... isn't coming out..."

"Ah..."

Asuna once again concentrated her vision on the girl's form. However, the color cursor that would definitely appear when dynamic objects in Aincrad, such as players, monsters, or even NPCs, were targeted, did not in this case. It was a phenomenon that had never happened until now.

"Is it perhaps, a bug, or something like that?"

"That's probably it. In a situation like this, one would usually call for a GM in a usual net-game, but there aren't any GMs in SAO... But still, it's not just the cursor. For a player, she looks way too young."

That was true. The body supported by Kirito's hands was unusually small. She did not even seem to be beyond ten years of age. There was supposed to be an age restriction while setting up the Nerve Gear, before being able to sign up, forbidding children, probably below the age of thirteen, from being able to use it.

Asuna softly stretched out her hand, brushing over the girl's forehead. It felt mildly cool and smooth to the touch.

"Why is... there a girl, as young as this, in SAO...?"

Firmly biting his lips, Kirito spoke as he rose up.

"For the time being, we can't just leave her alone. We should be able to find something out when she wakes up. Let's bring her back with us."

"Yeah, that's right."

Kirito got up as he held the girl in his arms. Asuna casually glanced over the surroundings, but being unable to find anything aside from a large, rotting stump, she did not manage to find out the reason for the girl's presence in the area.

They dashed nearly the entire way, but the girl did not regain consciousness, even after they exited the forest and arrived back home. Laying the girl down on Asuna's bed and setting a blanket, the pair sat down, side by side, on the adjacent bed, belonging to Kirito.

There was a momentary stillness in the air, before Kirito nonchalantly broke the silence.

"Well, if there's one thing we can be sure of, it's that she's not an NPC since we managed to move her in here."

"Yeah... that's right."

NPCs under the control of the system have their positions fixed within certain ranges of coordinates and, thus, cannot be moved according to players' desires. If they were to try touching or holding them, the harassment report window would be triggered within seconds, giving them a painful shock and blowing them away.

Lightly nodding to Asuna's agreement, Kirito continued with his deductions.

"Also, it couldn't be the opening to some kind of quest. If that was the case, the quest window should have refreshed the moment we touched her. ...In other words, this kid must be a player, who lost her way... or at least, that should be the most reasonable conclusion."

Quickly shifting his gaze towards the bed, he continued.

"Not having a crystal on hand, perhaps not even aware of the methods of getting around, I believe she had never ventured out to the field, and only stayed within the «Starting City». I don't know why she came all the way to a place like this, but in the Starting City, we might find someone who knows her... maybe even her parents or guardians might be there."

"Yeah. I think so too. I don't believe a child as young as this could even get on by herself. She should have come with her family or someone like that... I really do hope, that they're safe though."

Apparently having struggled with that last line, Asuna turned and faced Kirito.

"Hey, she should recover, right?"

"Ah. If she's not disappearing yet, she should still be hooked up to the Nerve Gear. Her condition should be close to sleep. That's why, sooner or later, she will wake up... I believe."

Vigorously nodding his head, Kirito's words were tinged with hope.

As Asuna got up, she knelt before the bed on which the girl was asleep, and reached out with her right hand. She gently caressed the girl's head.

She certainly was a beautiful girl. Rather than a human child, her presence could be said to be closer to that of a fairy. Her complexion was similar to the composition of alabaster, delicate and snow white. Her long, black hair gleamed elegantly, and with her exotic-looking features, she would, without a doubt, be charming if she were to open her eyes and smile.

Kirito got closer as well, lowering his body beside Asuna. Hesitantly reaching out his right hand, he stroked the girl's hair.

"She doesn't seem to be ten... Perhaps around eight?"

"It should be around there... She's the youngest player I've ever met."

"That's right. I came across a female beast tamer before, but even she was around thirteen years old."

Instinctively reacting to something she had never heard about, Asuna stared at Kirito.

"Hmm, so you had a cute friend like that, huh."

"Ah, we just exchange mails every now and then... n-no, that's all, there's nothing else to it!"

"I wonder. Kirito-kun is dull, after all."

And she turned away sharply.

As though he sensed the conversation heading towards an odd direction, Kirito stood up and spoke.

"Ah, it's already this late. Let's have some lunch."

"About that story, I'll be sure to have you clearly explain all the details later on, okay."

Glaring at Kirito once again, Asuna got up as well, laughing as she decided to drop the matter for the time being.

"Well, let's have the packed lunch. I'll go and make some tea."

The late autumn afternoon passed away peacefully, and even as the time for the crimson light, flooding in from the sun on the outer edge, to fade away came by, the girl still did not stir from her sleep.

As the curtains were drawn closed and the lamp on the wall lit, Kirito happened to return from his trip to the village. Silently shaking his head, he conveyed the failure on finding any leads on the girl.

Not in the best of moods for enjoying a lively dinner, the pair opted for a simple meal of soup and bread, and Kirito began his endeavor after looking over the various types of newspaper he had bought.

Although it is referred to as a newspaper, it is unlike those of the real world, pieces of paper bound together, but instead, simply a single piece of parchment, with the size similar to that of a magazine. It is represented in a manner like that of the system window screen, and by editing it like a website, it can be used to organize and display information gathered.

The contents too, are identical to a game walkthrough site managed by players, comprising of many topics: news, a beginner's manual, FAQs, an item list, etc. Within those, there was also a Lost & Found / Q&A section, where the pair laid their eyes on. They thought there was a possibility of someone searching for a girl. However—

"...None, eh..."

"None, huh..."

Spending tens of minutes to go through the entire newspaper, the two exchanged glances and loosened the tension in their shoulders. There was nothing more they could do than to wait for the girl to finally awaken and explain the circumstances.

On a normal night, the two of them would stay up late having meaningless conversations, playing simple games, sometimes even taking an evening stroll, or countless other activities that they do more rarely, but neither of them were in the mood for those this night.

"Let's call it a day already."

"Hm. I guess so."

Asuna acknowledged Kirito's words with a nod.

Turning the lights in the living room off, they headed into the bedroom. As the girl was occupying one of the beds, one of them would have to sleep with the other —well, that was already the case every other night, but— and they changed into their sleepwear in a hurry.

The lamp in the bedroom was also doused, and the pair laid down on the bed.

Kirito certainly did possess several strange unique skills; but still, it seemed that sleeping easily and well was included amongst them. When Asuna felt in the mood to talk and turned over, there was already the steady sound of breathing during sleep.

"Geez."

Softly muttering her disapproval, she flipped to the other side, facing the bed on which the girl was asleep. In the pale blue darkness, the black-haired girl was still fast asleep as before. Although she had never made a conscious effort to think about the girl's past, her thoughts gradually drifted in that direction as she continued staring.

If she was living until now with a guardian, like her parents or siblings, that would be fine. However, in the case that she came into this world alone and spent these two years in fear and isolation— to a mere eight or nine year old child, those days must have been unbearable. If she was in that situation, she would probably be unable to retain her sanity.

Could it be— Asuna leapt towards the worst possible conclusion. Maybe, the reason why she was wandering in that forest and faded into unconsciousness was due to some problem caused by the condition of her mind. Of course, there are no psychiatrists in Aincrad; neither were there any system administrators to seek aid from. The most optimistic prediction for clearing the game was still half a year at least, and nothing could be accomplished with merely Asuna and Kirito's effort anyway. Due to the fact that they were both currently absent from the frontlines, the number of players at their levels would be reduced by two, and creating a balanced party would be more difficult as well.

Regardless of how deeply the girl was suffering, she did not have the ability to save her— Realizing that, Asuna was stricken with an agonizing pain in her chest. She unconsciously left the bed and moved to the side of the sleeping girl.

Brushing the girl's hair for a short moment, Asuna softly turned back the covers and lay down beside her. With both arms, she tightly embraced her small body. Although the girl did not move even a single inch, her expression seemed to soften, and Asuna quietly whispered.

"Goodnight. It would be nice, if you woke up tomorrow..."

Part 2

Bathed in the white morning light, a gentle tune flowed into Asuna's drowsy consciousness. It was her wake-up alarm with the sound of an oboe playing. Enshrouded in the drifting sensation on the edge of awakening, Asuna plunged herself into the melody, somehow filled with nostalgia. Before long, the refreshing echoes of string instruments and the leading rhythm from the clarinet flowed over each other, along with a faint humming voice—

—Humming?

She was not the one singing. Asuna snapped her eyes open.

Within her arms, the black-haired girl had her eyelids closed... Humming along to the melody of Asuna's wake-up alarm.

The girl did not miss even a single beat. However, that was impossible. As Asuna had set the alarm to be audible to only herself, there was no chance that anyone could achieve a feat like singing along to the melody within her mind.

In any case, Asuna decided to put aside that doubt for now. Rather than that—

"Ki-Kirito-kun, geez, Kirito-kun!!"

Not moving an inch, she called to Kirito, sleeping in the bed behind. There were soon signs of Kirito softly murmuring as he awoke.

"...Morning. Something happened?"

"Hurry, come over here!"

The hushed creaking of the floorboards. Shifting his gaze over Asuna, onto the bed, Kirito widened his eyes immediately as well.

"She's singing...!?"

"Y-Yeah..."

Asuna lightly shook the girl within her hands and called out.

"Hey, wake up... Open up, your eyes."

The girl stopped moving her lips. Soon, her long eyelashes weakly trembled, and slowly rose upwards.

With misty black eyes, she peered directly into Asuna's eyes, right before her. Blinking several times, she opened her almost colorless lips just the tiniest bit.

"Aa... uu..."

The girl's voice rang out, like the delicate vibrations of silverware, a fleetingly beautiful sound. Asuna sat up, still holding onto the girl.

"...Thank goodness, you woke up. Do you know anything about, well, what happened to you?"

When spoken to, the girl kept her silence for several seconds, shaking her head in small, short motions.

"I see... What's your name? Can you say it?"

"N...ame... M...y... name... "

As the girl inclined her head, a strand of her glossy, black hair fell onto her cheek.

"Yu...i. Yui. That is... name..."

"So, Yui-chan? That's a pretty name. I'm Asuna. And that person is Kirito."

As Asuna turned, the girl who called herself Yui followed suit and shifted her vision. Looking to and fro between Asuna and Kirito, who was half bent forward, she opened her mouth.

"A...una. Ki...to."

With her lips faltering, she spoke with disjointed sounds. Asuna felt her fears from the previous night returning. The girl's outer appearance was of at least eight years old; if you were to consider the time that had passed since she logged in, her actual age should have reached around ten by now. But the girl's shaky words, were as if they came from an infant who had just gained awareness.

"Hey, Yui-chan. Why were you on the twenty-second floor? Are your father or mother perhaps, anywhere near here?"

Yui moved her eyes downward and sank into silence. Keeping quiet for a moment, she shook her head back and forth.

"I don't... know... I don't... know, anything..."

After having been placed into a sitting posture on the chair at the dining table and offered some warm, sweet milk, the girl held the cup up to her chest with both hands and began sipping it. Watching over her out of the corner of her eye, Asuna decided to discuss the situation with Kirito a distance away from the girl.

"Hey, Kirito-kun. What are your thoughts...?"

Kirito chewed his lips with a serious expression, but soon spoke, with his face downcast.

"She doesn't... seem to have her memories. But, with those reactions... it's like, her mind was, damaged or..."

"Yeah... You think so too, huh..."

"Dammit."

Kirito's face distorted, seemingly on the verge of tears.

"In this world... I've seen many horrible things... but this is... the worst. This is just too cruel..."

Seeing his eyes turn watery, Asuna too, felt something bursting out from her chest. Wrapping her arms around Kirito, she spoke.

"It'll be alright, Kirito-kun. ...If it's us, there's definitely something... we can do."

"...Yeah. That's right..."

Kirito raised his head and smiled faintly, placing his hand on Asuna's shoulder and returned towards the dining table. Asuna followed behind him.

Moving a chair with a clatter, Kirito sat down beside Yui and started a conversation with a bright voice.

"Aah, Yui-chan. ...Can I just, call you Yui?"

Raising her face from the cup, Yui nodded.

"I see. Then, Yui can just call me, Kirito."

"Ki... to."

"It's, Kirito. Ki, ri, to."

"..."

Yui put on a complex expression and kept quiet for a moment.

"...Kiito."

Kirito broke into a grin and laid his hand on Yui's head.

"Maybe that was a bit difficult. You can just, call me with any other easier name you want."

Yui once again pondered for a while. She didn't stir an inch, even when Asuna picked the cup up from the table and refilled the milk.

Soon enough, Yui slowly raised her face and looked at Kirito, and timidly, she opened her mouth.

"...Papa."

Next, she turned to Asuna and spoke.

"Auna is... Mama."

Asuna trembled uncontrollably. She did not know if the girl had merely mistaken them for her actual parents, or perhaps— that her parents did not exist in this world at all, and she wanted them instead; but before dealing with that suspicion, Asuna frantically tried to restrain the feelings filling her heart and struggling to break loose and nodded with a smile.

"That's right... It's Mama, Yui-chan."

Hearing that, Yui broke into a smile for the first time. Under her straight fringe, her previously expressionless eyes shone with a gleam, and in that instant, color seemed to return to her face with doll-like features.

"...Mama!"

Looking at the arms outstretched towards her, Asuna felt a violent jolting pain within her chest.

"Uu..."

Earnestly holding back the tears threatening to overflow, she somehow managed to preserve her smile. She carried Yui's small frame from the chair, and as she firmly hugged her, Asuna felt a single tear, filled with a mess of different emotions, spill out and trickle down her cheek.

Finishing off her drink of hot milk and a small bun, Yui seemed to have grown sleepy once again, with her head starting to sway to and fro while sitting in the chair.

Looking at the girl's status while seated on the opposite side of the table, Asuna wiped her eyes with a jerking hand and looked towards Kirito, beside her.

"I-I..."

Despite opening her mouth, she was unable to form the words she wanted adequately.

"I'm sorry, I just have no idea, about what I should do..."

Kirito gazed upon Asuna with sympathetic eyes, but soon spoke with a sigh.

"...Until that kid regains her memories, you want to stay here and look after her, right? I understand... those feelings. I feel the same. But still... it's a real dilemma... If we do that, we can't return to completing the game for a while, and with that, the time needed to break this kid free from here will be delayed as well..."

"Yeah... that's true, after all..."

Putting herself aside, Asuna started thinking. Not to exaggerate, but Kirito's presence as a clearing player towered above the rest of them, providing maps of the traversable areas in the labyrinth, with the quantity beyond even many prominent guilds, while being a solo player. Despite planning it as just a few weeks of newly-wed life, monopolizing Kirito by herself like this was enough to make her feel traces of guilt.

"For now, let's just do what we can."

Looking over at Yui, who had dozed off, Kirito continued his words.

"Firstly, let's head for the Starting City and see if we can find the kid's parents or siblings. With her standing out so much as a player, I believe there's bound to be some people who recognize her, at least."

"..."

It was a natural conclusion. But Asuna noticed her feelings of not wanting to be separated from the girl, from within herself. It was the life where she could be alone with Kirito, that she had even dreamed about; but somehow, she had no objections with it becoming a group of three. It might be because she felt as if Yui would be like the child of Kirito and her... Getting to that line of thought, Asuna was startled and came to her senses, blushing to her ears.

"...? What's the matter?"

"I-It's nothing!!"

Asuna turned to Kirito, who looked suspicious, and shook her head back and forth.

"Th-That's right. When Yui-chan wakes up, let's go to the Starting City. We can put something up in the Q&A corner of the newspaper on the way too."

Still not able to look Kirito in the face, Asuna spoke quickly while tidying up the table in a hurry. When she looked towards Yui, sound asleep in the chair, perhaps it was just her imagination, but her sleeping face seemed different from yesterday, appearing more tranquil.

Moved to the bed, Yui slept through the entire morning, and wondering if she had gone into a coma again, Asuna nervously worried; but fortunately, she woke up just as the preparations for lunch were completed.

Despite baking a fruit pie, which she rarely ever makes, for Yui's sake, when Yui took her place at the table, rather than the pie, she showed more interest in a sandwich, filled with plenty of mustard, that Kirito was heartily biting into, perplexing the pair.

"Ah, Yui, this is really spicy."

"Uu... I want to, have the same as Papa."

"I see. I won't stop you if you've already made up your mind. Everything is an experience."

Handing a sandwich over, Yui widened her petite mouth with all her might and took a bite without even a single trace of hesitation.

The couple held their breaths as they watched over her, Yui, chewing the food with a complicated expression, finally swallowed it down her throat with a gulp and beamed cheerfully.

"Yummy."

"This one has got quite some guts."

Kirito too, smiled as he rubbed Yui's head.

"Let's challenge ourselves with a burning hot full course for dinner."

"Geez, don't get carried away! There's no way I'll make something like that!"

But if they were to find Yui's guardians at the Starting City, the only ones returning here will be just the two of them. Thinking so, Asuna felt a tinge of loneliness running through her heart.

Asuna faced towards Yui, who decided to finish up the rest of the sandwich and was drinking some milk tea with a satisfied look, before speaking.

"Oh, Yui-chan, let's go out for a bit in the afternoon."

"Go out?"

Looking straight at Yui's puzzled face, she paused, wondering how to explain when Kirito cut in.

"We're going to look for Yui's friends."

"Friends... What are those?"

Reacting to that answer, the two instinctively exchanged glances. There were many peculiar traits to Yui's «syndrome». Rather than merely her mental age receding, it was closer to giving the impression as if bits and pieces of her memory were vanishing.

In order to improve her condition, it would be best to find her actual guardians... Telling herself that, Asuna faced Yui and answered.

"Well, friends are the people who are able to help out Yui-chan. Now, let's get ready."

Yui's expression still showed signs of doubt, but she nodded and got up.

The white one-piece dress worn by the girl, having short puff sleeves and made from a thin material, looked like it would be cold to go out in during this season, the start of winter. Of course, feeling cold, or perhaps catching a cold, suffering from some damage, things like that do not happen— well, it would be a different story if you were to strip and go to a frigid area, but— The fact that one would usually feel at unease does not change.

Asuna scrolled through her item list, materializing heavy clothing, one after another, and when she finally found a sweater that suited the girl, she came to a sudden stop.

Normally, when equipping clothes, one would manipulate the equipment figure from the status window. Cloth, liquids and such soft objects were not very well reproduced in SAO, and thus, rather than an independent, separate object, clothes were treated as a part of the body instead.

Taking note of Asuna's hesitation, Kirito questioned Yui.

"Yui, about your window, can you open it?"

As expected, the girl tilted her head to the side in complete ignorance.

"Well then, try moving your finger on your right hand. Like this."

Kirito waved his finger, and a purple rectangular window appeared under his hand. Seeing that, Yui mimicked the motion with an unsteady hand, but the window did not open.

"...As I thought, there's some kind of system bug. But still, not being able to open your status is just way too serious... You can't do anything like that."

Just as Kirito bit his lips, in that instant. Getting annoyed, Yui, who was waving her finger on her right hand, waved her left hand instead this time. Right at that moment, a glowing purple window was displayed under her hand.

"It's out!"

Above Yui, who was grinning away with delight, Asuna exchanged glances with Kirito, who was taken aback with surprise. She had no idea what was going on any longer.

"Yui-chan, let me take a look."

Asuna leaned over and peered into the girl's window. However, the status was usually hidden to all except the owner, and all she got a glimpse of was a bare, plain screen.

"Sorry, let me have your hand."

Asuna took Yui's hand in hers, moving her slim index finger, clicking around where she thought the visibility mode button was by intuition.

Her aim accurate, the features of the screen soon came into sight with a short sound effect. Typically, as stealing a glance into another's status was considered a heavy breach of etiquette, despite the uncommon circumstances, Asuna tried her best to keep from looking at it and nimbly open only the inventory, but...

"Wh-What's with this!?"

The second she glanced across the top section of the screen, she burst out in astonishment.

The top screen of the menu window was normally separated into three areas. The arrangement was such that in the topmost section, the name was shown in English characters along with the long and thin HP and EXP bars, and below that, in the right half, would be the equipment figure, while the left half would be the summary of command buttons. There were countless sample designs to customize with for the icons and such, but the default layout cannot be changed. On the other hand, in the topmost section of Yui's window, only the strange name display, «Yui-MHCP001» exists, with neither the HP bar nor EXP bar, or even the level display. Although the equipment figure was there, the amount of command buttons was drastically less than usual, with only «Item» and «Option» there.

Finding Asuna's freeze fishy, Kirito approached and peeked into the window as well, losing his breath. Yui, not knowing the significance behind the window's abnormalities herself, looked up at the pair curiously.

"Is this also... a bug in the system...?"

Asuna muttered, and a deep groan escaped from Kirito's throat.

"For some reason... rather than a bug, it looks more like it was designed in this manner from the very start... Damn, I don't think I've ever been more irritated that there aren't any GMs around, more than I am today."

"Normally, in SAO, there aren't really any bugs or lag to speak of, so there isn't really any need for GMs... There's no point brooding about that issue anymore, I guess..."

Shrugging her shoulders, Asuna moved Yui's finger once again, opening up the inventory. Placing the sweater she picked up from the table onto it, the item was stored into the window with a glint of light. Next, she dragged the name of the sweater towards the equipment figure, dropping it there.

Along with a sound effect resembling a bell, Yui's body was enveloped in particles of light right away, modifying the light-pink sweater into an actual object onto her.

"Waah..."

Wearing a sunny expression, Yui stretched out her hands and looked down at her own body. Asuna continued, getting a skirt of a similar color with black tights, red shoes and equipping the items on, one after another, finally having returned the original one-piece dress back to the inventory, she dismissed the window.

Finished dressing, Yui looked delighted, rubbing her cheek against the fluffy sweater's texture and pulling on the skirt.

"Now, let's get going, then."

"Um. Papa, carry."

Responding to Yui reaching out with both hands without a care, Kirito shyly gave a wry smile as he lifted the girl's body up. While doing so, he glanced at Asuna, and spoke.

"Asuna, just in case, be prepared for battle anytime. We shouldn't be going out of the city, but... that is the «Army»'s territory, after all..."

"Hm... It's best not to let our guard down."

With a nod, Asuna checked through her own inventory and walked towards the door together with Kirito. It would be good if the girl's guardians were found; those really were her honest feelings, but imagining parting with Yui made her feel strangely uncomfortable. They had only known each other for a single day, but Yui seemed to have completely taken over a tender part of Asuna's heart.

It had actually been months since her last descent to the first floor, the «Starting City».

Feeling complex emotions within her, Asuna stood still near the teleport gate's exit, scouting out the huge plaza and the streets stretching out beyond that.

Of course, as this was Aincrad's largest city, comparing the number of facilities essential to adventuring here with those of other cities, there was no competition at all. Prices were generally low, and all sorts of inns could be found here. Judging in terms of efficiency, this was a most suitable place to be used as a base town.

However, if you were to go by Asuna's contacts, not even a single high level player had stayed in the Starting City all the way until now. The oppression from the «Army» was one of the reasons, but it was mainly due to the fact that when standing in the central plaza and looking up toward the sky, one could not help but recall what had happened back then.

The start of it all was merely a whim.

Born through a relationship between a businessman father and a scholar mother, Asuna— Yuuki Asuna, was raised, subjected to the expectations of her parents from the very time she gained awareness. Both of her parents were people who were mercilessly firm with themselves, while being gentle to Asuna, and due to that, she was afraid of how they would react if she did not live up to their expectations.

Her brother was probably the same. Both Asuna and her brother had gone to the private school chosen by their parents, and without a hitch, constantly retained their excellent results. From the time her brother finally reached the age to be admitted into university and left the house, she existed with nothing on her mind, but solely to live up to her parents' expectations. Taking up lessons for multiple activities, socializing only with friends approved by her parents, but as she went through life like that, Asuna eventually felt her world shrinking, as though it was steadily deflating. If she continued on this predetermined path— proceeding onwards to the high school and university chosen by her parents, marrying the partner chosen by her parents, she believed she would definitely be trapped within an extraordinarily hard shell, even smaller than she was then, and be forever unable to escape from it; these were the fears she had always suffered from.

That was why, when her brother was employed by the company managed by her father and came back home, speaking so spiritedly with a Nerve Gear and a copy of SAO that he had gotten through his connections, about what would become the world's first «VRMMO», even Asuna who had not touched a television console game before, felt a minor trace of interest about that strange new world.

Of course, if her brother were to use it in his own room, she probably would have soon forgotten and not bothered about things such as the Nerve Gear. However, thanks to bad timing, her brother had to go on a business trip overseas on the very first day of the start of the SAO service, and so, Asuna ended up requesting to borrow it from her brother, for just a single day on a mere whim. Feeling the desire to peek into a world she had never seen before, that was all it was—

And thus, everything changed.

Even now, she could still recall the excitement of that day, when she changed from Asuna to "Asuna", finding herself on an unknown street, among people unknown to her.

But immediately after that, when that god of emptiness descended down and announced this death game, with the inability to escape from this world, the first thing Asuna thought about was the Mathematics work that she did not yet start on.

If she did not hurry back and settle that, she would get scolded by her teacher in the following day's lesson. For the life that Asuna had led thus far, that would be a failure that she could not allow... but of course, the severity of the situation was not of such a degree.

One week, two weeks, even as each day was idly passed by, there was no sign of help from the outside. Secluding herself within one of the rooms of a Starting City's inn, cowering atop the bed, Asuna constantly experienced a ridiculous amount of panic. Screaming every now and then, even beating on the walls as she wailed. It was the winter of her third year in middle school. Soon would be her examinations, and after that, the new school term. Being derailed from that path was considered the same as the devastation of her life, to Asuna.

Asuna spent each day amidst troubled fits, embracing deep, murky convictions.

Rather than being concerned for their child's body, her parents were definitely busy being extremely disappointed over the daughter who failed her examinations due to a game console. Her friends, while suffering from some grief, were probably pitying the one who dropped out of their group, or perhaps sneering over it.

When she passed her critical point with those dark thoughts, Asuna finally made a decision— to leave the inn. Not waiting to be rescued, but to escape from here with her own strength. To become the savior who would put an end to this incident. If she hadn't taken that path, she most likely would not have been able to retain her presence within the minds of the people around her any longer.

Asuna prepared some equipment, memorized the entire reference manual, and headed out into the field. Sleeping time for each day was restricted to two, three hours, and the rest of her time was sunk into level training. As a result of focusing all of her natural wisdom and willpower into clearing the game, it was not long before she was able to enter the list of top level players. This was how the ardent swordswoman, Asuna the «Flash», was born.

And back to the present— Two years have passed, and the now seventeen year old Asuna looked back at the self from that time with bitter feelings. No, not just the period right after the game started. Towards all that had happened before that, that self that lived within that solid, shrinking world too, she recollected that part of her past with a wretched, painful sorrow.

She did not understand the meaning of what it was like «to live». All she had done was think of nothing but the ideal future, sacrificing the present in the process. The «now» was naught but the means to bring about the perfect future, and hence, with its demise, there was nothing left but to disappear into the middle of nothingness.

It was no good with only one or the other. Overlooking the world of SAO, she thus concluded seriously.

One chasing the future would be like what she once was, fanatically advancing towards the clearing of the game, while one clinging only to the past would still be cowering in an inn's room. And the one who lives only for the moment would seek transient pleasure as a criminal at times.

But despite being in this world, there were people who enjoyed the present, making memories, one after another, while working hard to escape. The one who taught that to her was the black-haired swordsman she met a year ago. The desire for his way of life— from the moment that entered her mind, the hue of her day to day life changed.

Now, even if it was in the real world, she felt like she would be able to break through that shell. She believed that she would be able to live for her own sake. As long as this person stayed by her side—

Asuna gently approached Kirito, embracing his own deep feelings as he stared down the streets. The pain that she felt once again, as she gazed upon the stone roof in the sky, was a mere, faint thing.

Shaking her head once as though she was trying to clear up her sentiments, Asuna peered into Yui's face, still being carried by Kirito.

"Yui-chan, do you have any memories of any buildings, or things like that?"

"Uu..."

With a complex expression, Yui looked around at the rock structures, extending out from the plaza, before finally shaking her head.

"I don't know..."

"Well, the Starting City is pretty darn big, after all."

Kirito spoke while rubbing Yui's head.

"Well, something will probably ring a bell sooner or later if we keep walking around. Let's just check out the central marketplace for now."

"I guess you're right."

Nodding in agreement, the couple started walking towards the main street to the south.

But still— As she walked, Asuna looked over the plaza once again with some doubt. There were an unexpectedly small number of people around.

The gate plaza of the Starting City was wide as expected, being able to fit all ten thousand players two years back, at the opening of the server. In the middle of all that stone-paved empty space in the shape of a perfect circle, lies a towering clock tower, with the teleport gate flickering blue within its lower section. Flowerbeds extended out, set in concentric circles around the tower, with multiple elegant, white benches lined up between them. It would not be strange at all for it to be crowded with people seeking a moment of rest on such a nice afternoon; but all of the human figures around were either at the gate, or heading towards the plaza's exit, with barely anyone standing around or sitting on the benches.

For the major streets on the upper floors, the gate plaza would always be in a clutter with a flood of players engaging briskly in gossip, searching for party members, setting up modest street stalls; and as a result of all the people hanging around, even walking forward was difficult, but—

"Hey, Kirito-kun."

"Hm?"

Asuna asked as Kirito turned around.

"Around how many players are over here right now?"

"Hmm, well... The number of players still alive are around six thousand, and roughly thirty percent of that are still in the Starting City if we include the «Army»; so it would be just below two thousand, wouldn't it?"

"Considering that, don't you think there're too little people around?"

"When you point it out that way... Maybe they're gathered around the market?"

However, entering the main street from the plaza, even as they drew close to the market area with shops and carts lined up, the streets remained quiet. The random touting from the energetic NPC shopkeepers echoed futilely through the streets.

Despite that, they were able to find a man sitting under a large tree in the middle of the street, and Asuna approached and tried calling out to him.

"Ah, excuse me."

The man, staring upwards towards the treetops with an oddly serious expression, spoke as though it was a bother, without adjusting his view.

"What is it?"

"Well... Around this area, are there any places that act as a space for searching for people?"

Hearing those words, the man finally shifted his vision towards Asuna. He scrutinized Asuna's face without reserve.

"What, so you were an outsider."

"Ah, yes. Well... we're kind of trying to look for the guardians of this child..."

She pointed at Yui, dozing off while held in Kirito's arms, behind her.

Garbed in a plain uniform that made it hard to determine his class, the man widened his eyes slightly when he gave a fleeting glance at Yui, but he soon moved his view back to the treetops.

"...A lost child, huh, that's rare. ...At the church beside the river of the seventh district in the east, there's a bunch of kid players gathered and living there, so try there."

"Th-Thank you."

Able to get ahold of surprisingly promising information, Asuna quickly bowed her head. Having done that, she tried putting out another question.

"Ahh... Just what, are you doing over here? And also, why are there so little people around?"

Even as the man made a grimace, he replied, apparently not as bothered as he might appear.

"That would be a classified secret, or so I would like to say. Well, seeing as you're outsiders... Look, you can see it, right? That high branch over there."

Asuna followed the path of the man's outstretched finger. The overhanging branches of the sizable trees by the road were vividly dyed in the colors of autumn, but if you were to focus and stare at them, you could spot several yellow fruits, springing up in the shadows of the leaves.

"Of course, as the roadside trees are indestructible objects, even if you climb it, you won't even be able to get a single leaf off it."

The man continued his words.

"Everyday, there's a few times when that fruit falls down... There's only a few minutes before it rots and disappears, but if you don't miss that chance and manage to pick it up, you can sell it to the NPC for quite a bit. Not to mention it tastes pretty good."

"Ohhh."

For Asuna, who had mastered her cooking skill, discussions about ingredient items were of remarkable interest.

"Around how much does it go for?"

"...Don't spread this around. For each of them, five col."

"..."

Looking upon the man's proud expression, Asuna was unintentionally rendered speechless. She was surprised by just how cheap the price was. In that case, toiling by clinging onto this tree for the entire day did not quite match up with the results.

"Ah, well... In that case, it's not quite worth it, or rather... If you were to just defeat a single worm in the field, you could get thirty col."

At the moment she said that, the man stared in wonder this time. He did not quite accuse her of not being right in the head, but turned towards Asuna with an expression showing how absurd he thought it was.

"You seriously saying that? If you were to go and fight monsters in the field... You might actually die, wouldn't you."

"..."

Asuna could not think of a reply. It was just as the man had said; fighting against monsters always had the danger of death accompanying it. But with Asuna's current mentality, it was like worrying about getting into a traffic accident while crossing the road in the real world all day and night; there was no use getting scared over it.

Whether her own sense of death in SAO had been dulled, or whether the man was being overly nervous, being unable to judge that in an instant, Asuna stood motionlessly still. Probably, neither of them could be considered as correct. At the Starting City, what the man had said was definitely common sense.

Not taking any notice of Asuna's complicated mental state, the man continued speaking.

"And, what was it, the reason why there isn't anyone around? It's not that they aren't around. Everyone's cooped up in their inn rooms. They might meet up with the Army's tax collection force in the daytime, after all."

"Ta-Tax collection... Just what do you mean by that?"

"It's just the polite way of saying extortion. Be on the lookout; those guys won't spare you even if you're outsiders. Oh, looks like one's falling... that's the end of this chat."

Shutting his mouth, the man started glaring at the skies seriously. Asuna quickly bowed, and noticing that Kirito had kept his silence during the entire conversation, turned around to her back.

At that spot, was Kirito's figure, focusing on the yellow fruit with a serious look, not unlike that worn in the midst of combat. It seems that he intends to go all out to attain the next fruit that drops.

"Stop that already, geez!"

"B-But you see, doesn't it bother you?"

Gripping Kirito by the nape of his neck, Asuna started walking while dragging him away.

"Ah, ahh... and it looked good too..."

Pulling Kirito by his ear, with his regrets still lingering, she forced him to turn around.

"Rather than that, which way is the seventh eastern district? There seems to be young players living together there, so let's try going there."

"...Yeeah."

Taking over Yui, who had completely fallen asleep, and holding onto her tightly, Asuna pored over the map while keeping pace beside Kirito.

As Yui had the external form of someone around ten years of age, doing something like this in the real world would cause her arms to fail in just a few minutes, but thanks to the compensation from her physical strength parameter, Asuna felt the weight of nothing more than a pillow filled with feathers.

Walking towards the south-east through the spacious streets for ten minutes, barely passing by anyone as before, they finally approached a vast garden-like area. The forest of broad-leaved trees with their colors changing were waving dejectedly in the cold winds of the early winter.

"Let's see, this is shown as the eastern seventh district on the map, but... I wonder just where is that church."

"Ah, isn't it over there?"

Beyond the forest, stretching out on the right side of the road, Asuna spotted a distinctively tall spire and fixed her sight in that direction. At the summit of the ashen blue roofed tower, a metal ankh formed by combining a cruciform with a circle, was gleaming. It was the unmistakable mark of a church, of which at least one exists in every town. And through the altar inside, tasks such as removing the attack unique to monsters, «Curse», and the blessing of weapons to go up against undead monsters with, were possible. In SAO, where magic-based components barely exist, it could be considered a most mysterious place. Also, as long as col was regularly offered, a small room within the church could be borrowed and used as a replacement for an inn.

"Wa-Wait a moment."

Asuna unwittingly called Kirito to a stop, just as he was planning to walk towards the church.

"Hm? What is it?"

"Ah, no... Well... if, we happen upon Yui's guardians over there, we'll be... leaving Yui-chan there, right...?"

"..."

Kirito's black eyes softened with sympathy towards Asuna. He drew his arms close, gently embracing Asuna's body along with the sleeping Yui.

"I don't want to part with her either. Just how do I say this... with Yui's presence, that house in the forest really felt like it became a real home... well, that was how it felt like... But, it's not like you'll never meet again. If Yui regains her memories, she'll definitely come and visit again."

"Hm... That's right."

Giving a small nod, Asuna brought Yui, still in her arms, closer and lightly grazed her cheek, before walking forth, having resolved her feelings.

The church building was a mere trifle when compared with the scale of the city. It was a two-storied building, with only a single spire that acted as its symbol. But still, there were multiple churches within the Starting City, and the ones near the gate plaza were at the size of a minor castle.

Reaching the grand double doors in the front, Asuna pushed one of them open with her right hand. Being a public facility, it was naturally not locked. The interior was dim, and only the flames from the candles, decorating the altar at the front, burned, weakly illuminating the stone-paved flooring. There were no signs of life at first glance.

Popping only her upper body through the entrance, Asuna called out.

"Ahh, is there anyone here?"

Even as the sound of her voice trailed away with an echo effect, no one seemed to have appeared.

"Is there no one here...?"

As she tilted her head to the side, Kirito refuted her in a low voice.

"Nah, there's people. Three in the right room, four in the left... And more on the second floor."

"...With the detection skill, you're even able to tell the number of people beyond walls?"

"From the proficiency of nine hundred and eighty, that is. It's pretty handy, so you should increase it too."

"No way, training is so boring that I'll just go crazy. ...Putting that aside, I wonder why they're hiding..."

Asuna softly stepped into the church's interior. The surroundings were engulfed in a deathly silence, but she somehow felt the presence of people concealing their breaths within.

"Ah, excuse me, we're searching for someone!"

She tried calling out in a louder voice. With that— the door on the right side opened just the slightest bit, and a feeble female voice sounded out from there.

"...You aren't from the «Army», are you?"

"We aren't. We came here from the upper floors."

Both Asuna and Kirito did not have their swords, or even a single piece of armor meant for battle put on. Players belonging to the Army had a uniform of heavy armor on at all times, so one should be able to tell that they were unrelated to the Army even through appearances alone.

Soon enough, the door creaked open, and a single female player timidly showed up.

A head of dull blue short hair, with a large pair of glasses with black rims, and within those, deep green eyes were opened wide, filled with apprehension. Dressed in a plain dress of a simple dark blue shade, she had a dagger sheathed in its scabbard in her hand.

"You really... aren't from the Army's tax collection group, right...?"

Asuna gave the woman a reassuring smile, and nodded.

"Yes, we are searching for someone and just got here from above today. We're absolutely not related to the Army at all."

In that instant—

"From above!? You mean that you're actual swordsmen!?"

Along with a high-pitched boyish shout, the door behind the woman opened wide, and several human figures ran out disorderly. Immediately following that, the door on the left side of the altar was thrown open as well, and similarly, several people burst out.

Taken aback with surprise, as Asuna and Kirito watched over the scene without speaking, the ones lined up in a row on both sides of the bespectacled woman were all young players who could be considered as young boys and girls. The youngest was probably twelve, while the oldest would be around fourteen. All of them were in a state of keen interest over Asuna and Kirito, ogling all over them.

"Hey, all of you, I said to stay hidden in the room, didn't I!"

Only the woman, pushing back the children in a fluster, could be seen as around twenty of age. That said, not a single child was following her order.

But right after that, the first one who ran out from the room, a boy with short, red, bristling hair standing up on end yelled out in a disappointed tone.

"What's with that, you aren't even holding a single sword. Hey, didn't you come from above? Shouldn't you have a weapon at least?"

The latter half of those words were directed at Kirito.

"N-No, it's not that we don't have any, but..."

Kirito replied as he darted his eyes about in surprise, and the children's faces instantly brightened up once again. Lemme see, lemme see, all of them pleaded insistently.

"See here now, you can't just go about speaking so impolitely to people you've just met. —Sorry, we rarely ever welcome any guests around, so..."

Facing the truly sorry-looking bespectacled woman bowing down, Asuna spoke in a hurry.

"N-No, it's not a problem. —Hey, Kirito-kun, I think you have some still left in your inventory, so why don't you let them see?"

"Y-Yeah."

Nodding to Asuna's proposal, Kirito opened a window and moved his finger, changing about ten weapon-type items into objects at the same time, and piling them up on the long table nearby. They were items dropped by monsters during a recent adventure that were left alone as he did not have the time to sell them off yet.

Kirito closed the window, with all of the surplus items except the couple's equipment taken out, and the children cheered loudly and swarmed around them. Getting a feel of the swords, maces and such, one after another, cries of "Heavyy" and "Cool" soon resounded. It was a scene that would leave any overprotective parent faint, but no matter how weapons were handled within towns, it was impossible for them to suffer any damage.

"—I'm truly sorry..."

Although the bespectacled woman bowed her head down troubled, a smile came to her face at the sight of the delighted children, and she spoke.

"...Ah, do come this way. I'll prepare some tea, so..."

Guided to the small room in the place of worship, Asuna and Kirito took a sip of the hot tea offered to them and let out a relieved sigh.

"Then... you mentioned that you came to search for someone...?"

The bespectacled female player sitting on the opposing chair asked, with a slight incline of her head.

"Ah, yes. Er... I'm Asuna, and this person would be Kirito."

"Ahh, excuse me, I haven't even given my name yet. I am Sasha."

And she quickly bowed with her introduction.

"And, this child is Yui."

While brushing the hair of the still sleeping Yui on her lap, Asuna continued.

"This child got lost in the middle of the forest on the twenty-second floor. She... seemed to have lost her memories, so..."

"My..."

The woman who called herself Sasha widened her large deep green eyes, hidden behind her glasses.

"She didn't have anything aside from clothes equipped either, so it didn't seem like she lived on the upper floors... And so, perhaps her guardians are at the Starting City... or maybe people who knew this child might be around, we thought; hence, we came here to find them. Thus, when we heard that the children were gathered at the church here..."

"So that was how it was..."

Sasha grasped the cup within her hands, and dropped her gaze to the table.

"...Right now, there are twenty living here in this church, children from grade school to children around middle school. I believe it should be, more or less, all of the child players around in this city. At the time this game started..."

Sasha began to speak in a hushed, but clear tone.

"Almost that many children went into panic attacks and essentially underwent mental problems. Of course, there were children who got used to the game and left the city, but I believe them to be the exceptions."

It was something that Asuna experienced too, in her third year of middle school at that time. When she secluded herself in that inn room, she believed that she certainly did feel her mind crumbling away, almost driven to a corner.

"It's only to be expected; they were still at the age when they wanted to be spoiled by their parents. To be suddenly told something like them being unable to get out from here, maybe even never ever returning to the real world— those children mostly broke down, and within them... it seems there were some that broke the connection just like that."

Sasha's mouth firmly grew stiff.

"For a month or so after the game started, I thought about aiming for the completion of the game and went to train in the field, but... one day, I saw one of those children at a street corner, and I just couldn't leave the child alone; so I brought the child with me and started living together in the inn. And then, when I thought of all the other children still around like that child, I started to go about the city, so as to call out to children by themselves. Before I knew it, it turned out this way. That's why, somehow... despite there being people fighting at the upper floors like the two of you, to think that I dropped out, it feels inexcusable."

"That's... That's not—"

While shaking her head, Asuna struggled with all her might to find the appropriate words, but her voice was caught in her throat. Picking up the slack, Kirito spoke.

"That's not true at all. You're fighting valiantly... Much greater than someone like me is."

"Thank you very much. But I'm not quite doing this out of a sense of duty. It's been very enjoyable living with these children."

Sasha smiled sweetly and stared at the sleeping Yui worriedly.

"That's why... For two years straight, we went through all the buildings in an area each day, checking to see if there were any children who needed help. If there was such a small child left around, we would have definitely noticed. I'm sorry to say this... but as for this child, I don't believe she was living in the Starting City."

"Is that so..."

Asuna hung her head down, hugging tightly onto Yui. She pulled herself together and looked towards Sasha.

"Er, this seems like it would be intruding into your privacy, but how do you get by, for your daily living expenses and such?"

"Ah, for that, aside from me, there are several older children protecting this place around... they're at a level that ensures their complete safety as long as they stay within the fields around this city, so we can still do something about our food supply. We can't afford to live luxuriously though."

"Oh, that's amazing... Judging from what I heard earlier in the city, something like hunting monsters in the field is considered a suicidal act that goes against common sense."

Sasha nodded at Kirito's words.

"Basically, I believe that's what all of the players left in the Starting City think. I won't deny that idea; it can't really be helped, when you consider there's the danger of death... However, that could also be the reason why we're earning more money when compared to the average player in this city."

That was certainly true; to regularly reserve the guest room in this church, a hundred col would probably be needed every day. It was an amount that greatly exceeded the daily income of that fruit hunter from earlier.

"That is why I've been keeping my eyes on them recently..."

"...On who?"

Sasha's gentle eyes turned stern in an instant. Just as she opened her mouth to continue her words, at that moment...

"Sensei! Sasha-sensei! It's horrible!!"

The door to the room slammed open, and several children flooded in like an avalanche.

"Hey now, you're being rude to our guests!"

"That's not the matter here!!"

The red-haired youth from earlier shouted, with tears threatening to spill from his eyes.

"Ginn-bro and the others have been captured by the Army!"

"—Where!?"

Getting up with a manner so resolute that it felt as though she became another person, Sasha asked of the young boy.

"At the vacant land behind the second-hand shop at the fifth eastern district. The Army is blocking the passageway with ten people or so. Kotta was the only one who managed to get away."

"Understood, I'll go right away. —Excuse me, but..."

Turning around to face Asuna and Kirito, Sasha lightly bowed her head.

"I cannot just ignore the children in need. We will continue the conversation later on..."

"We'll go as well, sensei!!"

As the red-haired boy cried out, the entire crowd of children behind too, shouted out in agreement. Rushing next to Kirito, the boy had a desperate expression as he spoke.

"Bro, let us have the weapons from earlier for a while! If we have them, even those guys from the Army will run away!"

"I cannot accept that!"

Sasha let loose her refusal.

"The lot of you will wait here!"

At that time, Kirito, who had been watching over the development silently, raised his right hand, as though to pacify the children. He rarely ever read the air or understood the extent of conversations right, but only at times like this, did he exhibit a mysterious presence, quickly silencing the children.

"—It's a pity though—"

Kirito began speaking in a composed tone.

"The parameters required for that weapon are way too high, so someone like you wouldn't be able to equip it. We'll help you out. Even if she does look like that, that big sis over there is unreasonably strong."

Glancing at Kirito, Asuna too, returned a firm nod. Getting up, she turned towards Sasha and opened her mouth.

"Please allow us to help as well. Having more manpower should be for the best."

"—Thank you, I'll be counting on you."

Sasha gave a deep bow, firmly pulled up her glasses, and spoke.

"Well then, forgive me, but we'll be running!"

Rushing out from the church, Sasha began running straight ahead with her dagger shaking on her waist. Holding onto Yui, Asuna too, chased behind her along with Kirito. As Asuna glanced towards her back while running, she found a huge crowd of children following behind, but it did not seem like Sasha had any intention to send them away.

Weaving their way through the groves of trees, they entered the sixth eastern district and dove through the back alleys. It seemed that they were taking shortcuts for the shortest distance possible, and as they crossed through NPC store fronts, gardens belonging to private houses and such, they spotted a group blocking the thin alleyway in front. There were probably at least ten people. Dressed in uniform ash-green and steel-black equipment, they were unmistakably members of the «Army».

As Sasha, who was dashing through the alleyways without hesitation, drew to a stop, she caught the attention of the players from the Army, and they turned around with a broad grin.

"Oh, the baby-sitter is here."

"...Please return the children."

Sasha spoke with an unwavering voice.

"Don't just tarnish our reputation like that. We'll return them soon; we're just instilling some proper social etiquette into them."

"Yeah, yeah. The townspeople do have their responsibility to pay up their taxes, after all."

The men went wa-ha-ha-ha, letting loose raucous laughter. Sasha's tightly closed fist trembled.

"Ginn! Kain! Mina!! Are you there!?"

When Sasha called out towards the men, a frightened girlish voice soon rang out in response.

"Sensei! Sensei... help us!"

"Don't worry about the money, just hand it all over!"

"Sensei... we can't just...!"

This time, it was a strained boyish voice.

"Nha, ha, ha."

One of the men blocking up the road spluttered out a laugh that resembled a spasm.

"Well, it's all because you guys haven't been paying up quite a bit of taxes... Money just isn't enough like this, eh."

"That's right, that's right. We'll have you drop your equipment here too. All of your armor too... every single, last piece."

Looking on at the men's vulgar smirks, Asuna instantly guessed at the state of affairs from within the alley. This «tax collection force» was no doubt demanding for the group of children, which included a girl, to take off all of their clothes as well. A fury close to blood-thirst began swelling within Asuna.

Sasha seemed to have reached the same conclusion, drew closer to the men, brimming with hostility.

"Get out... Get out of my way! Otherwise..."

"Otherwise what, baby-sitter? You gonna pay the tax in their place?"

The smirking men made no effort to move whatsoever.

Within towns, or within the boundary of the town's range, so to speak, as the program known as the Crime Protection Code is always activated, trying to inflict damage, as well as attempts to move other players against their will were completely impossible. But in return, malicious players blocking paths cannot be eliminated. Sealing up the roadway by standing there, to «block»; even getting several people to surround the target directly to immobilize the victim, to «box»; the existence of these unethical harassment methods ended up being allowed.

That said, those acts were only effective in cases where one was moving on the ground after all. Asuna looked at Kirito, and spoke.

"Let's go, Kirito-kun."

"Yeah."

Nodding in agreement, they casually kicked off the ground.

Towards the pair jumping using all of their dexterity and strength, Sasha and the member of the Army could only look up dumbfounded as they soared over them easily, landing in the space that was enclosed from all sides.

"Woah!?"

Several men in there jumped back with fright.

In the corner of the area, two boys and a girl in their early tens were huddled together stiffly. Their armor was already removed, dressed only in simple underwear. Asuna bit her lips, stepped up to the children, and spoke with a smile on.

"It's alright now. You can return your equipment."

The youths immediately nodded with round eyes, picking up the armor at their feet frantically, and started operating their windows.

"Oi... Oi, oi, oi!!"

At that moment, a player from the Army finally came to his senses and shouted out loud.

"The heck's with you guys!! Don't you dare obstruct the work of the «Army»!!"

"Now, now, wait a bit."

Stopping that, a man with noticeably heavier armor stepped forward. He seemed to be the leader of the group.

"We haven't seen you guys around, but do you know what it means to go against the Liberation Force? If you still intend to, we can even hear out your case in detail at the headquarters."

The leader's slim eyes shone with a vile light. Pulling out a large broadsword from his waist, he stepped up while repeatedly striking the sword blade with his palm, as if on purpose. The surface of the sword glittered with the light from the low-lying setting sun. A shallow gleam typical of a weapon that had never experienced or been repaired from damage even a single time.

"Or do you want to bring this «outside the boundary» to settle it, outside the boundary? Eh!?"

At the moment she heard that single phrase.

The clenching of Asuna's teeth rang out. She thought it best to settle the matter amicably, but when she saw the youths shivering with fear, her fury had already passed her limit.

"...Kirito-kun, I'll leave Yui-chan to you."

Yui was handed over to Kirito, and before anyone knew what was happening, he had already flung out the materialized Asuna's rapier with a single hand. Drawing the sword as she received it, she nimbly moved towards the leader.

"A.... Ah...?"

Facing the man, still unable to catch up with the situation with his mouth left half-open, Asuna suddenly threw all her power into a single-handed stab.

The surroundings were dyed in a violet flash of light. The sound of an impact on the level of an explosion. The man's menacing face was thrown back, and he fell backwards onto his rear in a daze, with his eyes still open.

"If you wish for a battle that much, there's no need to go all the way to the field."

Walking right up to the man, Asuna once again brandished her right hand. The flash repeated, and a deafening sound rumbled out. The leader tumbled backwards, as though he was repelled.

"Don't worry, your HP didn't drop after all. Well, thanks to that though, I don't have to stop either."

Looking up at the figure of Asuna approaching with steady steps with trembling lips, the leader appeared to have finally realized what she implied.

Within the range of the Crime Prevention Code, even if attacks from weapons are targeted at players, it will be stopped by an invisible barrier and no damage will be inflicted. But this rule too, had an alternate significance: that the attacker would have no worries of being corrupted into the colors reserved for criminals.

An example that uses that fact would be the «Within Boundary Battle», usually done as a mock battle used for practice. However, with the increase of the attacker's stats and skills, the noise of the impact and the luminosity of the color created by the system, at the time the Code was activated, will be intensified accordingly; And in addition to that, with the power of the sword skill used, though slight, a knockback effect would be produced as well. For people not used to it, it was not an easy thing to bear, even if they do understand that their HP was not reduced.

"Eek... s-sto..."

Knocked down onto the ground by Asuna's sword attack, the leader screeched out.

"You guys... don't just watch... do something about it...!!"

Finally regaining their senses with that voice, the members of the Army pulled out their weapons one after another.

The blocking players, who sensed the abnormality of the situation, ran in too, from the north and south roads.

Surrounded by the men in the shape of a semicircle, Asuna faced them with eyes blazing brightly, as though she had returned to the time when she was the ardent warrior. Kicking off the ground without a word, she sliced the troops right before her.

In just an instant, the narrow space was filled with the consecutively howling of a thunderous roar.

About three minutes later.

As Asuna, having regained her senses, stopped moving and lowered her sword, all that laid within that area, were the collapsed bodies of the players from the Army, scattered around. The only ones left all seemed to have deserted their leader and escaped.

"Whew..."

Taking a large breath of air, she sheathed her rapier back into its scabbard and turned around— all she saw were the figures of Sasha and the children from the church, standing stock still, lost for words.

"Ah..."

Asuna took a step back as she held her breath. She believed that she had definitely frightened the children when she abandoned herself to her fury and lashed out earlier, and cast her eyes down in depression.

But at that moment, the usual boy who stood at the head of the children, with his combed back red hair, cried out with his eyes sparkling.

"Amazing... That was amazing, sis!! That was the first time I saw anything like that!!"

"I told you that this big sister was unreasonably strong, didn't I?"

Kirito stepped forward with a broad smile. Holding onto Yui with his left hand, a sword hung lowered on his right. It seemed that he had faced off several others.

"...A-Ahaha."

Asuna laughed, feeling troubled, and the children suddenly gave several loud cheers, jumping towards her.

Sasha held her two hands tightly before her bosom, smiling with eyes that seemed to be holding back tears.

"Everyone's.... Everyone's hearts are—"

A slight, but clear voice resounded. Asuna raised her face, startled. Within Kirito's arm, Yui who had awoken without anyone noticing, looked towards blank air and reached out with her right hand.

Asuna looked towards that direction in a fluster, but there was nothing there.

"Everyone's hearts... are..."

"Yui! What's the matter, Yui!!"

Kirito cried out, and Yui blinked twice or thrice, looking on with a blanked out expression. Asuna too, ran up in her confusion, grasping onto Yui's hand.

"Yui-chan... could it be, that you remembered something!?"

"...I... I..."

Frowning, she hung her head down.

"I, wasn't... here... Always, by myself, in the darkness..."

Frowning as though she recalled something, she bit her lips. And, at that moment...

"Wa... aa... aaah!!"

Throwing her head back, a high-pitched shriek surged out from her slender throat.

"...!?"

Zsh, zsh, a sound similar to electronic noise reverberated within Asuna's ears for the first time ever since she was in SAO. Immediately after that, Yui's petrified body started trembling here and there, as though they were decaying away.

"Yu... Yui-chan...!"

Asuna screamed and wrapped her hands around that body frantically.

"Mama... scary... Mama...!!"

Holding up the feebly moaning Yui from Kirito's arm, Asuna tightly embraced her within her chest. Several seconds later, the mysterious phenomenon settled down, and the strength escaped from Yui's rigid body.

"What... happened just now..."

The hollow murmur from Kirito faintly flowed through the empty space consumed in silence.

Part 3

"Everyone, take one piece of bread each!"

"Hey, it'll spill if you don't pay attention!"

"Aah, sensei! Ginn stole my sunny-side-up fried egg!"

"I gave you my carrots in return, didn't I!"

"This is... pretty amazing..."

"Yea, it is..."

Both Asuna and Kirito gazed upon the scene of a breakfast, resembling a battlefield unfolding right before their eyes, and muttered to each other in a daze.

The Starting City, the guest room within the church of the seventh eastern district. Large plates of eggs, sausages, vegetable salads and such were lined up on a pair of huge, long tables, nearly overflowing them, and were ravaged by twenty or so children in a grand riot.

"But still, it looks like they're really having fun."

At the circular table slightly away, Asuna sat with Kirito, Yui, and Sasha, smiling as she brought a cup of tea to her lips.

"It's like this every day. It doesn't sink in no matter how many times they're told to be quiet."

Having said that, Sasha narrowed her eyes filled with love from the bottom of her heart, as she looked at the children.

"You really do like children, don't you?"

Asuna spoke, and Sasha smiled with embarrassment.

"On the other side, I was training to become a teacher in university. You see, classroom chaos has always been a problem, hasn't it? The chance to be able to guide children; I've always gotten fired up by it. But when I came here, when I started living with those children, just about everything was different from what I believed in... It felt like I was the one relying on them instead; that they were supporting me more rather than the other way around. But, well, that might be fine too... I started believing that it was merely a natural result."

"Well, I guess I do understand somehow."

Asuna nodded, softly brushing Yui's head, who was earnestly putting a spoon to her mouth beside her. The warmth brought about by Yui's existence surprised her. It was different from the heartrending love she felt in her chest that tightened when touched by Kirito; it was like being tucked into unseen feathers, before being covered once again; a quiet serenity.

Yesterday, passing out after going into a mysterious fit, Yui fortunately came to after several minutes. However, as Asuna did not want to immediately make any long trips or use the teleport gate, and also partly due to Sasha's keen invitation, they ended up borrowing one of the Church's available rooms for the night.

Yui's condition seemed well since the morning, so Asuna and Kirito were relieved for the moment, but her original circumstances had not changed. According to the faint memories that seemed to have returned to Yui, she appears to have never come to the Starting City, and in the first place, she was not living with a guardian. In that case, the origin of the defect in Yui's memory, the symptom of her regression back to an infant, was absolutely unknown, and they were at a loss for what they should be doing next.

But Asuna had tempered the feelings from the depths of her heart.

From now on too, she would continue living together with Yui until the day her memory returns. Even if her break were to end, and she had to return to the frontlines, there should be a way to somehow—

As Asuna got lost in her anxiety while stroking Yui's hair, Kirito put down his cup and started speaking.

"Sasha-san..."

"Yes?"

"...Well, it's about the Army. To the extent of my knowledge, despite the overwhelming tyranny from those guys, they were still determined to maintain public order. But looking back at those guys from yesterday, it was as if they were criminals... Since when has it been like that?"

Sasha tensed her mouth and answered.

"The time I felt their change in objectives should have been around half a year ago... There were some who committed acts of extortion under the name of tax collection, as well as others who, on the other hand, cracked down on those. I have also witnessed scenes of fellow members of the Army confronting each other several times. According to rumours, it seems that there were power struggles among the higher-ups or something like that..."

"Yeaah... Well, they're still an enormous organization of over a thousand members now, after all. There's no way they're monolithic though... But still, if what happened yesterday was a daily affair, they shouldn't be able to just leave it alone... Asuna."

"What?"

"Does that guy know about this situation?"

Guessing at whom Kirito referred to with those reluctantly spoken words, "that guy," Asuna spoke as she held back a smile.

"Well, I guess he would know... Leader Heathcliff is knowledgeable, even about the movements of the Army, after all. But about him, how should I say this, he doesn't seem to have much interest in anyone aside from the high levelled clearers... He has asked various things about Kirito-kun in the past, but at the time of the subjugation of the murder guild, «Laughing Coffin», he just left us with a single line going, "I'll leave it to you." Hence, I believe that he probably wouldn't mobilize the clearing group for the sake of influencing the Army."

"Well, it does seem like it's possible when you consider that guy... But in that case, we can't really do much with just us around."

Knitting his brows as he sipped his tea, Kirito suddenly raised his face and looked towards the entrance of the church.

"Someone's here. A single person..."

"Eh... Could it be another guest..?"

As if to emphasize Sasha's words, a loud knock resounded throughout the building.

The one who entered the dining room with Sasha, a dagger hung on her waist, and Kirito, who followed her to be certain, was a female player of tall stature.

Long, silver hair tied up in a ponytail- her appearance gave off the impression of intelligence, and her sky-blue eyes shone intensely with light on her sharp, well-featured face.

Hairstyle, hair color, and even the color of the eyes' pupils can be customized to one's will in SAO, but as what most of the system had to work with were Japanese, players that suit strong hues of color like this could be said to be fairly rare. Asuna too, had once tried dying her hair to cherry pink herself; it was an unmentionable past in which she returned it to brown in disappointment.

She was a beautiful person, and having gained a first impression that included some yearning for her adult-like image, Asuna dropped her gaze once more, towards the girl's equipment, and her body stiffened up on reflex.

Though it was hidden by an iron-grey cape on her body, she wore a dark green coat with leggings well-fitted on her thighs; the metal armor with a dull gleam was unmistakably the uniform of the «Army». On the right side of her waist was a shortsword, and a curled up whip hung on her left.

The children who had noticed the woman's appearance sank into silence all at once and stopped moving with their eyes dyed in vigilance. However, Sasha smiled towards the children and spoke as though she was easing their distrust.

"Everyone, it's fine, don't worry about this lady. Continue your meal."

The children threw a questionable glance, but with those words from Sasha, in whom they had placed their utmost trust, everyone released the tension in their shoulders feeling relieved, and the clamor immediately returned to the dining room. The female player who walked all the way to the circular table in the midst of all that took a chair offered by Sasha and sat down with a short bow.

Not understanding the situation, Asuna looked at Kirito questioningly, and he, who sat down in a chair, too, inclined his head to the side as he faced Asuna and spoke.

"Er, well, this person is Yulier-san. It seems that she has something to tell us."

The silver-haired whip-user who was introduced as Yulier looked straight at Asuna for a moment, before quickly bowing her head and opening her mouth.

"Good to meet you, I'm Yulier. I belong to the guild, ALF."

"ALF?"

Asuna asked in return at the name she had heard of for the first time, prompting Yulier to give a slight bow with her head.

"Ah, excuse me. That would be the abbreviation for the Aincrad Liberation Force. I don't quite like the official name, so..."

Her voice was that of a composed, elegant alto. Feelings of envy grew even larger within Asuna, who had always thought her own voice was childish, as she returned the greetings.

"Nice to meet you. I am the guild, Knights of the Blood's— ah, no, I'm currently retired for the time being, but you can call me Asuna. And this child is Yui."

Having emptied the serving of soup in the time passed and presently challenging the fruit juice, Yui suddenly raised her face, closely watching Yulier. She slightly inclined her head, but soon gave a sweet smile, retreating her gaze.

The moment the name of the Knights of the Blood reached Yulier's ears, she opened her sky-blue eyes wide.

"KoB... I see, in that case, it's no wonder those guys were easily dealt with."

Asuna, who figured "those guys" referred to the assault and extortion group from yesterday, heightened her wariness as she spoke.

"...In other words, you're here to question the incident from yesterday, is that it?"

"No, no, that's not it at all. It's the opposite; it's more like I wanted to express my thanks for doing a good job."

"..."

Facing towards Kirito and Asuna, who were silent as they tried to get ahold of the situation, Yulier straightened herself up.

"Today, I came here with a request for the two of you."

"A-A request...?"

Nodding as her hair of silver swayed, the swordswoman from the Army continued.

"Yes. Then I'll start my explanations from the very start. What is known as the Army, wasn't named as such since long ago... The reason why the ALF became the current name for the Army, is due to the fact that a former sub-leader, a man named, Kibaou, who is presently the influential head, took control over it. Initially, it had the guild name, MTD... Have you ever heard of it?

Asuna did not recall ever hearing of it, but Kirito gave an immediate reply.

"That's probably the abbreviation for «MMO Today». At the time SAO started, it was the biggest net-game information gathering site in Japan. The one who formed the guild should have been the administrator from there. If I'm not wrong, the name was..."

"Thinker."

At the moment the name was spoken, Yulier's face contorted slightly.

"He... was definitely not trying to make a self-righteous organization like how it is now. All he wanted was to equally share information and food resources among as many players as possible..."

Even Asuna knew all about the ideals and collapse of the «Army» during that time through hearsay. The ideal of hunting down monsters with many people, lowering the level of danger as much as they could, through which they were able to earn a steady income and spreading that out equally, was not flawed in itself. But the essence of MMORPGs was the scramble for resources by players for themselves, and that had not changed, even with the strange, not to mention, extreme conditions attached to a game such as SAO. No, actually, it could be said that those conditions reinforced that supposition instead.

Therefore, a pragmatic plan and strong leadership for the organization were crucial to realize those ideals, and to add onto that, the Army was much too big. Concealment of acquired items was rampant, coups and revolts happened one after another, and the leaders gradually lost their control over the guild.

"And the one who came to power then was the man named Kibaou."

Yulier spoke in an unpleasant tone.

"He supported the concept of individualism from Thinker, began strengthening the structure of the organization with players of the upper rank with similar views, and changed the name of the guild to Aincrad Liberation Force. In addition, he drove the hunting down of criminals and monopolization of fields with effective rates up, through the use of an official policy. He had at least considered friendships with other guilds by defending the etiquette on hunting areas until then, but after that, he kept up the monopolization for a long period of time through multiple displays of power, sharply increasing the guild's profits, and caused the supporters of Kibaou to end up gaining political power rapidly. Recently, Thinker has been increasingly resigned to the status of a mere figurehead... while the players from the Kibaou clique have been getting carried away, starting acts of extortion under the pretense of «tax collection», even within the boundaries of towns. Yesterday, the ones who caused all of you that distressing encounter were part of those guys from that faction."

Yulier took a breath of air, drank the tea Sasha had made, and continued.

"However, even the Kibaou clique has a weakness. That is, they're hooked on nothing but the accumulation of wealth, barely continuing with the completion of the game. The belief that they are mistaking the cause for the end is becoming popular among the tail end of the players... To restrain that dissatisfaction, Kibaou recently took a reckless gamble. Within his subordinates, he assembled a party of ten of the highest levelled players, sending them to finish off the foremost boss."

Asuna unintentionally exchanged glances with Kirito. The case of the player from the Army, Colbert, who challenged the floor boss of the seventy-fourth floor, «The Gleameyes», without even proper preparations and died a tragic death found a new detail to add on to her memory.

"Regardless of how high those levels may have been, from the very start, when compared to those from the clearing group, we cannot deny our lack of competence. ...In the end, the party was eliminated, and with the worst possible result of the death of the commanding officer. Kibaou was strongly blamed for that display of recklessness. We were only a short bit away from being able to exile him, but..."

Wrinkles creased on Yulier's high nose bridge, and she bit her lips.

"Three days ago, Kibaou, took drastic measures as he was hunted down, setting a trap for Thinker. He used a corridor crystal, set to deep within the dungeon, at the exit, and Thinker ended up getting expelled instead. At that time, Thinker went without his equipment, believing in Kibaou's words, 'Let's talk while unarmed,' in a status that guarantees that one would be unable to break through the mob of monsters from the deepest section of the dungeon and return by oneself. It seemed that he didn't even carry a teleport crystal with him..."

"Th-Three days have already passed...!? In that case, Thinker-san is...?"

Towards Asuna who replied with a question, Yulier gave a slight nod.

"His name on the «Monument of Life» is still unaltered, so it seems that he managed to make it all the way to the safe zone somehow. However, as the location is still the inner portion of a considerably high levelled dungeon, we appear to be unable to take any action... As you know, messages cannot be sent within dungeons, and the guild storage cannot be accessed from inside, so we can't just send a teleport crystal in either."

Since using a corridor crystal leading right into a destination of death is a basic technique known as, «Portal PK», Thinker should naturally know about it. However, he probably did not even consider that a sub-leader of the same guild would go to that extent, even with the bitterness between them. Or perhaps, he just did not want to believe it at all.

As though she had read Asuna's thoughts, Yulier muttered, "He's just too much of a good person," with a sigh, and continued.

"...The only ones able to manipulate the proof of a guild leader, the «Scroll of Contracts», are Thinker and Kibaou, and at this rate, with Thinker not returning, the guild's personnel management and such, even the finances; it will all be left under Kibaou's control. The responsibility for not preventing Thinker from falling into the trap lies with his assistant, which would be me, and I have no choice but to go and rescue him. But I have no chance of breaking through the dungeon he is confined in with my level; neither can I call for support from the players of the «Army»."

She bit her lips tightly, before looking straight at Kirito, then Asuna.

"And at that time, I caught wind of news that an amazingly powerful pair appeared within the city, hence it is with the intention to ask for help, that I came here, as I could not just ignore the situation and do nothing. Kirito-san— Asuna-san."

Yulier bowed deeply, and spoke.

"I believe this to be extremely impudent of me to ask of this when we've just met, but please, won't you aid me in rescuing Thinker?"

Asuna stared intently at Yulier, who had ended her long story and closed her mouth.

It may be depressing to say so, but within SAO, the words of others cannot be trusted so easily. Even for a matter like this, the possibility of it being a conspiracy to lure Kirito and Asuna outside the range of the town, so as to inflict harm onto them, cannot be abandoned just yet. Normally, as long as there is sufficient knowledge about the game, one would be able to find the holes in the stories of possible liars, but unfortunately, Asuna and company are much too ignorant about the true state of affairs concerning the «Army».

Exchanging a glance with Kirito, Asuna opened her mouth to speak with care.

"—If there's something we can do, we should offer our strength— that is what I believe. But for that to happen, we would first have to do some research at least, so as to confirm your story..."

"That is— as expected, I suppose..."

Yulier gave a slight nod.

"I even realize, that this is an unreasonable request... However, it would not be unthought-of for a horizontal line to be engraved into Thinker's name on the «Monument of Life» of the Black Iron Castle any moment now..."

The silver-haired whip-user's firm eyes appeared to cloud over, swaying Asuna's feelings. She keenly felt her desire to believe. But at the same time, the experience she had gathered over these two years in this world warned her, setting off alarm bells about the danger of letting her emotions loose.

Taking a look at Kirito, he too, seemed to be lost in his thoughts once again. Those black eyes intently looking this way reflected the wavering of his heart, between the desire to help out Yulier and the concern for Asuna's health.

—It happened then. Yui, who had been silent up till then, abruptly raised her face from her cup and spoke.

"It's fine, Mama. That person, she's not lying."

Asuna was taken aback and stared hard at Yui. Putting aside the contents of her speech, it was excellent Japanese, as if the way she had faltered with her words up until yesterday was a lie.

"Yu... Yui-chan, are you able to understand something like that...?"

Having been asked the question as Asuna looked into her face, Yui gave a nod.

"Un. I can't... really put it into words, but I get it..."

Having heard those words, Kirito reached out with his right hand, ruffling Yui's head. He looked at Asuna and grinned.

"Let's just regret believing in her, instead of regret suspecting her. Let's go. We'll handle it somehow."

"You're as carefree as ever, huh."

Shaking her head as she replied, Asuna too, reached out towards Yui's hair with her hand.

"Sorry about that, Yui-chan. We will be delayed in searching for your friends for a day, but do forgive us."

She whispered in a small voice, although she was unsure if she really understood it. Yui gave a huge smile and nodded. Stroking her glossy black hair once again, Asuna turned towards Yulier and spoke, smiling.

"...We might not be of much help, but do allow us to aid you. The desire to help someone important to you; I too, understand that feeling..."

As tears welled up in Yulier's sky-blue eyes, she took a deep bow.

"Thank you... Thank you so much..."

"Let's save that for after we rescue Thinker-san."

Asuna gave yet another smile, and Sasha, who was looking over the situation in silence thus far, clapped her hands together.

"In that case, be sure to get your fill! There's still more left, so do have some too, Yulier-san."

The feeble sunlight of the early winter leaked through the treetops of the roadside trees turning a deep crimson, casting shadows upon the stone paving. Barely anyone passed through the alleys of the Starting City, and coupled with the streets that stretched out forever, the somber impression it gave off could not be denied.

Asuna, properly armed with her equipment, hastened through the roads along with Kirito, carrying Yui, under Yulier's guidance.

Asuna naturally tried to leave Yui behind in Sasha's care, but as Yui stubbornly insisted on going together, she ended up reluctantly bringing her along. Of course, a teleport crystal was prepared for her in her pocket. If the situation called for it—though it would trouble Sasha—it was arranged to allow her to retreat away from there.

"Ah, now that I think about it, you didn't mention something important yet."

Kirito called out to Yulier, who was walking in front.

"Which floor is the dungeon in question on?"

Yulier gave a simple answer.

"It's, here."

"...?"

Asuna instinctively inclined her head to the side.

"Here... eh?"

"It's, well, this Starting City's... there's a large dungeon in the underground at the central part of it. Thinker is... probably, in the deepest part of..."

"Seriously?"

Kirito spoke as though he was groaning.

"There wasn't anything like that during the beta test. What a miss..."

"The entrance to that dungeon, is at the Black Iron Castle— in other words, it's at the Army's headquarters. It does appear that it's the type of dungeon that opens up with the clearing of the upper floors, and it was only found out around the time Kibaou came to power, with them planning to monopolize it for their own clique. It was kept a secret for quite some time, from even Thinker, and of course, myself as well..."

"So that's it. There are quite a lot of rare items that pop up only once in unexplored dungeons, after all. They must have made quite a profit from it."

"Well, that's not quite true."

Yulier's tone of voice was dyed with slight traces of pleasure.

"Despite it being on the base floor, the degree of difficulty for that dungeon was dreadfully high... Even among the base monsters there, their levels are close to those around the sixtieth floor. It seems like even the advance party led by Kibaou himself got broken up and chased around, barely escaping with their lives by teleporting out. Thanks to those recklessly used crystals, we went deep in the red and all."

"Hahaha, I see."

Yulier responded to Kirito's laugh with a smile, but soon sank into gloom.

"However, right now, that's the reason why saving Thinker is difficult. The corridor crystal that Kibaou used was made by marking a spot rather deep inside that he got through to as he ran here and there away from the monsters... Thinker is probably at the tip of that marked spot. It's not quite impossible for me to handle the monsters there if it's one-on-one, but consecutive battles would be totally hopeless. —I apologize, but the two of you will..."

"Ah, well, if it's around the sixtieth floor..."

"We should be able to handle it somehow."

Following up on Kirito's statement, Asuna nodded. For the dungeon on the sixtieth floor, a level of 70 was needed to amply clear it, but Asuna had currently reached level 87, while Kirito had easily exceeded 90. With that, it should be possible to break through the dungeon even while protecting Yui, and she released the tension in her shoulders with relief. However, Yulier continued her speech without changing her anxious-looking expression.

"...Also, there's another matter of concern. It's information gotten from the players who participated in the advance party, but deep in the dungeon... a humongous monster was sighted; something at the rank of a boss..."

"..."

Asuna exchanged glances with Kirito.

"The boss might be that one from around the sixtieth floor... How was the boss from there again?"

"Eh, well, I believe... it was something like an armored warrior formed from stone."

"Ah, that one, huh. ...It wasn't too hard, if I'm not wrong..."

Facing towards Yulier, she gave another nod.

"Well, as for that, we should probably be able to handle it as well."

"In that case, I'm relieved!"

Yulier finally slackened her jaws and continued her words while squinting, as though she was looking at something dazzling.

"That's right... The both of you have always experienced boss battles... I'm sorry, to take up your precious time..."

"No, we're on break right now, after all."

Asuna flustered, waving her hands.

As they exchanged those conversations, the form of a huge building, shining with a black luster, began to appear in the streets beyond them. It was the largest establishment of the Starting City, the «Black Iron Castle». In the hall right after entering through the main gate, the «Monument of Life», with the names of every player listed on it, was erected, and although anyone could enter up till that point, most of the deeper grounds inside were completely under the control of the Army.

Yulier did not head for the main entrance to the castle, moving around to the back. The high castle walls and the deep moat encircling it, denying intruders, continued on forever. There was absolutely no human traffic.

After walking on for several minutes, the place where Yulier came to a stop was a stairway that descended from the road, down towards somewhere close to the water's surface of the moat. Peering in, there was a dark passage wide open on the right side at the tip of the stairs.

"We will enter the castle's sewers from here and head for the entrance to the dungeon. It might be a little dark and narrow though..."

Yulier cut off her words there, glancing at Yui, within Kirito's arms, with concern. With that, Yui scowled as though she was upset,

"Yui isn't scared!"

and insisted so. A smile unintentionally leaked from Asuna, as she looked at the situation.

To Yulier, Yui was explained with nothing more than a, "We're living together." She did not try to pry into anything beyond that, but she probably had reservations about bringing her along to the dungeon, as expected.

Asuna spoke as to alleviate her worries.

"It's alright; this child is much more alert than she appears, after all."

"Yep. She will definitely become a fine swordswoman in the future."

With Kirito's remark, Asuna exchanged glances with him and smiled, and Yulier gave a deep nod.

"Well then, let's go!"

"Nuooooo"

And the sword gripped by the right hand cut through the monster with a slash,

"Ryaaaaaaa"

And the sword gripped by the left hand blew it away with a bang.

Equipping two swords for the first time in a while, Kirito released all the energy saved up from his holiday, laying waste to the swarms of enemies without pause, one after another. Asuna, holding Yui's hand, and Yulier, gripping her metal whip, had no chance to do anything at all. Each time the groups of enemies, comprising of huge frog-type monsters covered in slime, crayfish-type monsters carrying pincers of a black sheen, and such appeared, what assaulted them with reckless fury were the swords from the left and right, tearing through everything surrounding them, finishing the enemies off.

Asuna's mind went, "Oh, geez," but Yulier gazed upon Kirito's berserker-style with wonder, her mouth agape. It was probably a spectacle much too different from her knowledge of combat. With Yui cheering on with an innocent "Papa, do your best," the tension in the air evaporated even further.

Dozens of minutes had passed since heading from the dark and moist underground water supply, until invading this dungeon made from black stones. It was more wide, deep and filled with monsters than expected, but with Kirito breaking the game balance, swinging around his pair of swords with vigor, the two swordswomen suffered from nearly zero fatigue.

"We... Well, I'm a little sorry about this, leaving it all to you..."

Towards the apologetic-looking Yulier, with her head bowed down, Asuna replied with a wry smile.

"No, that guy's already enthralled, after all... It's fine just letting him do everything."

"Hey, what's with that, that's horrible."

Kirito, back from devastating the group, sulked as Asuna's words reached his ears.

"Want to switch, then?"

"...Ju-just a bit more."

Asuna and Yulier smiled as they met each other's glances.

After the silver-haired whip user waved her left hand, displaying the map, she pointed out the glowing point that represented a friend marker, showing Thinker's present position. As she did not have the map to the dungeon, the path towards the glowing point was blank, but they had already shortened seventy percent of the total distance.

"Thinker's position hadn't moved for several days. I believe that he should probably be in a safe area. If we're able to reach all the way there, we can just use crystals to withdraw, so... I'm sorry, I'll be counting on you for just a little longer."

Yulier lowered her head, and Kirito frantically waved his hands.

"N-No, we're doing it because we want to, and there are items dropping as well, so..."

"Oh?"

Asuna asked in return by reflex.

"Did something good drop?"

"Yup."

Kirito nimbly manipulated the window, and a dark red meat appeared from its surface with a clacking sound. Asuna's face froze, thinking about how grotesque it must feel.

"Wha... Just what is that?"

"Frog meat! You'll definitely say that its tastiness is comparable to its strangeness, so be sure to cook it later."

"I. Won't. Do it!!"

Asuna shouted out, and opened up her window as well. Accessing the inventory shared with Kirito, she dragged the character string going, «Scavenger Meat x24», and mercilessly tossed it onto the trash bin mark.

"Ah! Aaaaaa..."

Looking upon the utterly dejected-looking Kirito speaking in a bitter tone, Yulier could not help but laugh, holding onto her stomach, even as she tried to stifle it. At that moment,

"Big sis, you finally laughed!"

Yui cried out delightedly. She too, grinned broadly.

Looking at that, it took Asuna aback— recalling what had happened back then. The day before, the time Yui went into spasms was also right after the children had all laughed together, having repelled those guys from the Army. It seemed that the girl had a unique sensitivity towards the smiles of people around her. Whether that was the personality she was born with, or perhaps due to all the painful feelings she had suffered until now— Asuna instinctively held up Yui in her arms, hugging her closely. She swore in her heart, that she would always smile when beside this child.

"Well, let's go on!"

To Asuna's voice, the party stepped forth, heading ever further into the depths.

The groups of monsters mainly made up of aquatic-based creatures from the time they entered the dungeon changed into those from the specter family, such as zombies and ghosts, as they descended the stairs, sending intense chills down Asuna's heart, but Kirito's pair of swords continued slaughtering the appearing enemies in mere instants, not showing the slightest hint of hesitation.

Normally, it is not quite well-regarded for a high levelled player to go wild in a hunting field far below theirs, but there was no need to mind about that this time, as there wasn't even anyone else there. If there was time available, it would be a chance to work towards levelling up Yulier, who was content being the support, but rescuing Thinker took precedence at present.

In the two hours that passed in the blink of an eye, the distance between the current position displayed on the map, and where Thinker's location was, thought to be the safe zone, steadily narrowed down.

It was completely unknown just how many had already been downed, as Kirito's swords blew that particular black skeleton swordsman into pieces, and they finally caught sight of a passage glimmering with warm light just beyond there.

"Ah, it's the safe zone!"

As Asuna spoke, Kirito nodded as well, having confirmed with his detection skill.

"There's a player alone inside. It's safe."

"Thinker!"

Yulier shouted out and ran with her metal armor clinking, unable to hold herself back any longer. Kirito lowered his two swords and hurried behind her, along with Asuna holding onto Yui.

They ran towards the light. As they went through the road that bent to the right for several seconds, a large fork in the road, and beyond that, a small room, soon came into view.

To their eyes, accustomed to the darkness, the room was filled with light bright enough to blind them, and a single man stood in the entranceway. His face was shaded due to the backlight, but he was wildly waving his arms in their direction.

"Yurieeel!!"

The moment he confirmed the figures, the man roared out her name. Yulier waved her left hand as well, running ever quicker.

"Thinkerrr!!"

As if his voice was mixed with tears, the man's cry—

"Don't come any closeeer!! That road is...!!"

On hearing that, Asuna slowed down her pace, startled. But it did not seem to have reached Yulier's ears. She was rushing straight towards the room.

In that moment.

Several meters before the room, in the blind spot on the right side, on the path intersecting the road that the three were running through, an unexpected single yellow cursor appeared. Asuna promptly checked the name. The display was «The Fatal-scythe»—

With the meaning of a scythe that decides fate, it had the defining "The" attached to it. The proof of a boss monster.

"Nooo!! Yulier-san, get back!!"

Asuna screamed. The yellow cursor smoothly moved towards the left, closing in towards the intersection of the crossroads. At this rate, Yulier would run into it at the crossing. There was barely any time left.

"Ku-!!"

Suddenly, Kirito who had been running on Asuna's left seemed to— have vanished. In reality, he had dashed off at a tremendous speed. The surrounding walls quivered with the sound of that impact.

He travelled several meters with a force at the level of teleportation, and as Kirito held onto Yulier from behind her with his right hand, he thrust the sword in his left into the bedrock with all his might. A tremendous metallic sound. Countless sparks. Performing an urgent brake that was able to burn the very air, in the space in front of the pair that barely managed to stop before the crossroads, the ground roared as it tremored, as a gigantic black shadow crossed.

The yellow cursor that lunged into the passage on the left stopped after roughly ten meters. The monster of unknown stature coolly changed its direction and appeared to charge in once again.

Kirito released Yulier, and withdrawing the sword he pierced into the floor, he jumped into the left passage. Asuna followed behind frantically.

Shaking Yulier, who had fallen due to shock, back to her senses, she pushed her towards the opposite side of the crossing. Letting Yui down from her arms and entrusting her with Yulier, Asuna left a short call.

"Please retreat into the safe zone with this child!"

The whip-user nodded with her face white, and having confirmed that she carried Yui towards the room, Asuna drew her rapier as she turned to the left.

The sight of Kirito's back, staying still in his dual blades stance, entered her vision. What laid further in— was a being of two and a half meters, a humanoid silhouette clad in flapping black robes.

Within the hood, the arms peeking out from the cuffs, were dark, corporeal and wriggling as they coiled about. Inside its murky face, all that occupied it was a pair of energetic eyeballs, their blood vessels visible, looking down at the couple. It wielded a huge black scythe in its right hand. From the edge of that cruel curve, viscid red blots trickled down, drop by drop. As a whole, it had a figure just like that of the supposed god of death.

The death god's eyeballs swirled around, and looked straight at Asuna. At that moment, chills ran through her entire body, as though her heart was gripped by pure fear.

But its level should not be too much to deal with.

With that thought in her head, the moment she readied her rapier once again, Kirito spoke coarsely, standing in front of her.

"Asuna, get those three at the safe zone and escape with a crystal now."

"Eh...?"

"This guy's bad. Even my identification skill couldn't find any data on it. In terms of power, it probably ranks among the ninetieth floors."

"...?"

Asuna lost her breath and stiffened up as well. Even in those moments, the death god gradually moved through the air, closing in on the pair.

"I'll stall for some time, so hurry up and get out of here!!"

"Ki-Kirito too, we should both..."

"I'll go after you! Hurry...!!"

Even though the teleport crystal is a last resort measure for retreating, it is not an all-powerful tool. Between gripping the crystal, designating the destination, and actually completing the teleportation, there is a time lag of several seconds. If one were to receive an attack from a monster in that period of time, the teleportation will be cancelled. When the chain of command breaks down in parties, with people retreating purely to suit their own convenience popping up, the reason why the rest become casualties, unable to even stall for enough time to teleport, is due to this.

Asuna was at a loss. Even if the four of them teleported first, with Kirito's running ability, he might be able to outrun the boss to reach the safe zone. However, the charging speed shown by the boss earlier was truly terrifying. If perhaps— she were to escape first, and after that, he doesn't appear. That was a thought she could not bear.

Asuna took a glance at the depths of the road on the right.

—Sorry, Yui-chan. Even though I said that we'll be together...

Whispering so within her heart, she shouted out.

"Yulier-san, I'll leave Yui to you! Please escape together, you three!"

Yulier shook her head, her expression frozen.

"I won't allow it... something like that..."

"Hurry!!"

It was then. The death god, swaying its wielded scythe, started charging with startling vigor, miasma spreading from the hem of its robes.

Kirito crossed the swords in his hands, taking up an imposing stance before Asuna. Asuna frantically clung onto that back, meeting Kirito's two swords with the one in her right hand. The death god, without a care for the three swords, swung the scythe down, aiming above the couple's heads.

A red flash. An impact.

Asuna felt herself spinning round and round. First, she was thrown to the ground, then she crashed into the ceiling on the rebound, before falling back down to the ground once again. Her breathing stopped, and her field of vision began to darken.

Her consciousness hazy, she checked Kirito's and her own HP bars, both of them had half shaved away from that single hit. The merciless yellow indicator conveyed the inability to survive the next attack. She had to get back up. That was what she thought, but her body couldn't move—

—And, at that moment.

Short step after short step, she heard those soft footsteps close to her ears. Shifting her sight, bewildered, childlike steps, like those of a kitten, advancing forward without a care for the impending danger entered her vision.

Slender hands and feet. Long, black hair. It was Yui, who should have been in the safe zone. Possessing a gaze without the slightest trace of fear, she stared straight at the gigantic god of death.

"Idiot!! Hurry up, get away!!"

Frantically struggling to move his upper body, Kirito cried out. The death god held its scythe aloft with deliberate motions once more. If she was dragged into an attack of that range, Yui's HP would certainly be blown away. Asuna too, tried to move her mouth. But with her lips stiffened up, she was unable to utter a single word.

But in the next moment, something unbelievable happened.

"It's alright, Papa, Mama."

Along with those words, Yui's body gently floated into the air.

It was not a jump. Moving as though she flapped invisible wings, she came to a complete stop at a height of two meters. She softly hung her far too small right hand in the air.

"Nooo...! Get away!! Get away, Yui-chan!!"

As if to erase Asuna's screams, the death god's scythe was relentlessly swung down, drawing a line of dark-red light. The atrocious pointed edge came within reach of Yui's pure white palm—

Right before it came into contact with her, it was hindered by a vivid purple barrier, and repulsed with a large noise. The system tag that floated before Yui's palm caused Asuna to stare in astonishment.

[Immortal Object], that was surely what was written there. Immortality— an attribute that no player should possess.

The black death god spun its eyeballs about, as though it was bewildered. Immediately following that, a phenomenon to further surprise Asuna happened.

"Gouu!!," along with this sound, crimson flames came forth, coiling around, with Yui's right hand as their core. The flames scattered widely for an instant, before immediately condensing, and started to join together into a long and narrow form. As one looked on, the figure changed towards that of a huge sword. A blade, sparkling in the shades of the blaze, emerged from within the flames, extending out endlessly.

The greatsword that appeared in Yui's right hand was of a length that easily exceeded the girl's height. Radiance from the metal that seemed to be on the verge of melting illuminated the pathway. As though rousing the flames of the sword, the bulky winter clothes worn on Yui's form burnt down in an instant. From beneath that, the white one-piece dress the girl had on at first appeared. Strangely enough, even as the flames winded around the one-piece dress, as well as that long, black hair, there seemed to be absolutely no effect on them.

She casually spun the sword that exceeded her height around, once—

Without showing a hint of hesitation, Yui challenged the death god as she drew strokes of flames.

Despite its actions being governed by nothing more than simple algorithms from the system, within the boss monster's bloodshot eyes, Asuna believed she saw them dyed in a distinct color of fear.

Draped in the swirls of flames, Yui charged through the air with a deafening roar. The death god raised the scythe before itself and assumed a defensive stance, as though it was afraid of the girl, far smaller than itself. And approaching forth, Yui swung the huge, blazing sword straight down with all her might.

The blade, exuding intense flames, collided into the horizontal scythe's handle. For an instant, the pair's movements ceased.

Without even a moment to think, Yui's flaming sword moved once more. Like the metal was ablaze with withering amounts of heat, the radiant blade ate into the scythe's grip bit by bit. With enough force to tear apart everything but Yui's long hair and one-piece dress, as well as the death god's robes, it flickered behind them, scattering large sparks at times, lighting up the interior of the dungeon, dyeing the area orange.

Before long—

Along with an explosive sound, "Gou," the death god's scythe was finally cut in half. Immediately following that, as the energy accumulated thus far was unleashed, the greatsword turned into a pillar of flame, striking straight into the middle of the boss's face.

"—h...!!"

Asuna and Kirito squinted their eyes and shielded their face on reflex, reacting to the excessively strong force from a scorching ball of fire that appeared in that moment. At the same time Yui swung the sword straight down, the fireball blew up, swallowing up the death god's form in crimson swirls as it streamed deeper into the passage. Hidden within that thunderous roar, a faint shriek of death and agony echoed.

When they opened their eyes, they immediately closed them for an instant due to how dazzling the flames were. The figure of the boss monster was no more. Small fires swayed about, left behind here and there on the road, making cracking noises. And in the center of it all, Yui stood still by herself, looking downcast. The blazing sword which stood in the ground, dissolved and crumbled down into nothing as it exuded flames just like the time it materialized.

Asuna rose up, finally having regained the strength in her body, slowly standing up by using her rapier as a support. Kirito too, stood up shortly after. The couple approached the girl with unsteady steps.

"Yui... chan..."

Asuna called out with a coarse voice, and the girl turned back without a sound. Her small lips showed a smile, but in those large jet black eyes, many tears were swelling up.

Yui looked up at Asuna and Kirito as she quietly spoke.

"Papa... Mama... I, remember everything now..."

The safe zone of the deepest part of the Black Iron Castle's underground labyrinth was shaped as a perfect square. There was only a single entrance, and in the middle of it, a smooth, gleaming, black stone cube acting as a table was positioned.

Asuna and Kirito looked on at Yui, sitting on the stone table, looking small and quiet, in silence. Yulier and Thinker were asked to escape first, so the three were by themselves now.

"My memory recovered"; with just those words, Yui went through several minutes without speaking at all. That expression seemed sorrowful somehow, as though she was hesitant to speak, but Asuna gathered her resolve and asked.

"Yui-chan... Did you remember...? Everything up till now..."

Yui still continued looking downcast, but finally gave a nod. With an expression like a mix between smiling and crying, she raised her small lips.

"Yes... I will, explain everything— Kirito-san, Asuna-san."

The moment she heard that polite form of speaking, Asuna's chest tightened with desolate expectations. A suffocating belief that something would be ending.

Within the square room, Yui's words gently started flowing forth.

"This world named, «Sword Art Online», is managed by a single large system. The system's name is «Cardinal». That is, the way this world is managed is based on its judgment. In the first place, Cardinal was designed to not require maintenance from humans. With two core programs doing mutual error correction on the other, and in addition, countless numbers of lower program bundles, they regulate the whole of this world... The AI for monsters and NPCs, the balancing of the rates of items and the currency, anything and everything is managed by the cluster of programs under the command of Cardinal. —However, there was one thing that could be entrusted to nothing but humans. Trouble originating in the players' mental state; that was the only thing that could be settled by none other than humans themselves... and for that purpose, dozens of staff members should have been prepared."

"GM..."

Kirito spoke with a sigh.

"Yui, in short, are you saying that you're a gamemaster...? A staff from Argus...?"

After spending several seconds in silence, Yui softly shook her head.

"...When the developers of Cardinal entrusted even the care of players to the system, they ran a trial of a certain program. Using a feature unique to the Nerve Gear, it monitored the emotions of players in detail, and appeared at the side of players found to have problems to hear them out... «Mental Health — Counselling Program», MHCP version 1, codename, «Yui». That would be me."

Asuna's breath was taken away with how much of a shock it was. She was unable to apprehend just what had been said right away.

"Program...? Do you mean an AI...?"

She asked in a low voice. Yui gave a nod, a dejected smile on her face.

"So as to not discomfort players, I was given an emotion imitation function. —It's fake, all of it... even these tears... I'm sorry, Asuna-san..."

Large tears spilled from Yui's eyes, becoming particles of light, and dissipated. Asuna took a single, soft step towards Yui. She reached out her hand, but Yui faintly shook her head. As if— she was unqualified to receive Asuna's embrace.

Still incapable of believing the situation, Asuna forced out her words.

"But... But, losing your memories...? Can something like that happen to an AI...?"

"...Two years ago... The day the official service started..."

Yui lowered her eyes, and continued her explanation.

"Although I am unaware of the complete details of what exactly happened as well, Cardinal handed down an unplanned order to me. A complete prohibition from interfering with all players... Unpermitted to come into any tangible contact with them, I reluctantly continued with nothing but the monitoring of the condition of the players' mental health."

Asuna reacted reflexively; she guessed that «unplanned order» was due to the manipulation done by the only GM of SAO, Kayaba Akihiko. Yui, who was probably in the dark about him, moved her lips once more, her face distorted in sorrow.

"That situation— was simply the worst... Practically all of the players were taken over by negative emotions such as fear, despair and rage most of the time; at times, there were even some that fell into madness. I continued looking into the hearts of those people. Originally, I would not have been able to stop myself from going straight up to those players, listening to their stories and settling their problems... but there was no means of coming into contact with them from my position... With that contradiction of having the sense of duty, yet the lack of authority to do so, I was gradually flooded with errors, and broke down..."

At the bottom of the silent underground labyrinth, Yui's delicate voice rippled out, like a trembling thread of silver. Asuna and Kirito could not help but listen attentively without uttering a single word.

"One day, when I did my usual monitoring, I noticed a pair with mental parameters that differed largely from those of other players. I had never encountered those brain patterns that I picked up until then. Joy... peace... but not just those... Just what are these emotions; thinking that, I continued to monitor those two. Mysterious desires sprouted within me, as I pried into their conversations and actions. No such routine should have existed, but... I wanted to get closer to those two... in an intimate setting, I wanted to converse with them directly... With the wish to be nearer, even the slightest bit more, I wandered about daily, manifesting at the system console closest to the player home that the couple lived in. I believe I must have been considerably broken down at that point in time..."

"And that is, the forest of the twenty-second floor...?"

Yui gently nodded.

"Yes. Kirito-san, Asuna-san... I had always wanted... to meet with the two of you... In that forest, the moment I saw the two of you... I felt extremely happy... It was strange; it's not possible that I could think of something like that... I am nothing but a mere program..."

Overflowing with tears, Yui closed her mouth. Asuna was stricken with indescribable feelings, grasping her hands tightly before her chest.

"Yui-chan... you are a true AI, aren't you? So you possess actual intelligence, don't you...

As she said so in a whisper, Yui inclined her head slightly and replied.

"I.. don't understand... Just exactly, what had happened to me..."

At that moment, Kirito, who had kept his silence till then, took a step forward.

"Yui is no longer a program operated by the system. Therefore, you should be able to voice out your own wishes."

And he spoke in a soft tone.

"What do you wish for, Yui?"

"I... I want..."

Yui stretched out her slender arms towards the couple strongly.

"To always be together... Papa... Mama...!"

Without even wiping away the tears flowing over her face, Asuna rushed over to Yui, tightly holding onto her small frame.

"We will always be together, Yui-chan."

Shortly after, Kirito too, wrapped his arms around Yui and Asuna.

"Aah... Yui is our child. Let's go home. We'll all live together... forever..."

However— within Asuna's breast, Yui softly shook her head.

"Eh..."

"It's... too late..."

Kirito asked, bewildered.

"Why's that... what's too late..."

"The reason why I have regained my memories... is because I've touched that stone."

Yui looked towards the center of the room, pointing at the black cube stored there with her small hand.

"When Asuna-san pushed me away into this safe zone earlier, I touched that stone by coincidence, and understood. That is not just a decorative object... It's a console installed there in the case that a GM requires urgent access."

As though there was an order of some sort within Yui's words, several lines of light burst towards the black stone. Immediately, with a fading beeping sound, a pale blue holo-keyboard rose to its surface.

"I believe that the boss monster from earlier was stationed here to keep players away. I accessed the system using this console, and eliminated the monster with the «Object Eraser» summon. At that time, with Cardinal's error correction ability, my damaged language faculty was restored, but... at the same time, Cardinal also found out about me, who was left alone until then. Right now, the core system is scanning over my program. It will conclude with the answer that I am a foreign entity, and I'll most likely be erased. I already... do not have much time left..."

"That... That is..."

"Can't something be done about it? If we get away from this place..."

Yui merely gave a wry smile towards the pair's words. Tears flowed down Yui's white cheeks once again.

"Papa, Mama, thank you. This would be our farewell."

"No way! I don't want something like that!!"

Asuna desperately screamed.

"This is just the beginning!! From now on, happily, together with everyone... living peacefully with each other..."

"In that darkness... During that long suffering where I did not even know the end of, the existence of Papa and Mama was my only solace."

Yui looked straight at Asuna. Faint light began enveloping that body.

"Yui, don't go!!"

Kirito held on to Yui's hand. Yui's small fingers gently caught hold of Kirito's.

"When I'm with Papa and Mama, everyone is able to smile... I was very happy for that. This is my request; that from now on too... in my place... help everyone out... give them joy..."

Yui's black hair and one-piece dress began disintegrating away into transient dispersing particles of light, much like morning dew. Yui's smiling face slowly became transparent. Her presence faded away.

"No! I don't want this!! If Yui-chan isn't here, I won't be able to smile!!"

Covered in the expanding light, Yui smiled sweetly. She caressed Asuna's cheek with her hand, on the verge of disappearing.

—Mama, do smile...

As a weak voice reverberated in Asuna's mind, an overwhelming dazzling light scattered out; as that too faded, there was nothing within Asuna's arms.

"Uwaaaaaa!!"

Raising her voice uncontrollably, Asuna fell to her knees. Kneeling atop the stone paving, she cried loudly like a child. The tears spilled onto the ground, drop after drop, mixed together with the grains of light left behind by Yui, vanishing away.

Part 4

As if the chill till yesterday was a lie, a warm, gentle breeze blew over the lawn. Perhaps attracted by the merrymaking, several small birds descended onto a branch of the garden tree, appearing to look over the humans with great interest.

A garden party was hosted without care for the season at the vast front yard of Sasha's church, with the big table from the dining hall moved and set there. Food was taken out from a large grill like magic, raising a grand roar of joy from the children.

"To think that something this delicious... was actually in this world..."

The chief executive of the «Army» who was rescued just the previous night, Thinker, bit into the barbecue that Asuna had exhibited her talents in, as he spoke with awe. Beside him, Yulier looked over the situation with a smile. She had the presence of a cool-headed female warrior on first impression, but when she was beside Thinker, she resembled nothing more than a cheerful young wife.

And as for Thinker, although there wasn't much time to get a good look at him yesterday, when sitting at the same table like this instead, he had a character that gave off an aura of gentleness, very much unlike what the top of a huge organization would be thought to be.

With a stature of a degree slightly taller than Asuna, he was evidently shorter than Yulier. His somewhat stocky body was clad in plain clothes, and he did not have a single weapon on hand. Beside him, Yulier too, was not in her Army uniform style today.

Thinker accepted the wine bottle Kirito offered into his glass, and apparently not for the first time, he gave a firm bow.

"Asuna-san, Kirito-san. We are truly obliged to you this time. Just how can I thank you..."

"No, I'm quite indebted to «MMO Today» on the other side, after all."

Kirito answered as he smiled.

"That's a nostalgic name."

A broad smile showed on Thinker's round face upon hearing that.

"At that time, with the burden that updating daily was, I thought that I shouldn't even bother doing a news site, but when compared to being a guild leader, it certainly was slightly easier. I would have been better off running a newspaper stand here too, huh."

Gentle laughter streamed out from the table.

"And well... how did things go with the «Army»...?"

Asuna enquired, and Thinker changed his expression.

"Kibaou and his followers were expelled. I really should have done that much earlier... With my personality of being bad at arguments, the situation kept getting worse... —I even thought about disbanding the Army."

Asuna and Kirito rapidly opened their eyes in surprise.

"You... must have pondered over that for quite a bit."

"The Army had become too huge... I'll be breaking down the guild and from that, creating a more peaceful organization for mutual aid once again. Breaking it down and abandoning all of it is just irresponsible after all."

Yulier softly held Thinker's hand and continued in his stead.

"—We believe we will be distributing the assets that the Army had accumulated thus far to not just the members, but equally among all of the inhabitants of this city as well. We've caused such trouble up till now after all... Sasha-san, we're really sorry."

Yulier and Thinker suddenly gave a deep bow, causing Sasha's eyes to blink with surprise within her glasses. She frantically waved her hands in front of her face.

"No, that's too much. The children have received help from the good folk from the Army in the field too, after all."

With Sasha's candid denial, the place was filled with gentle laughter once more.

"Well, putting that aside..."

Tilting her head, Yulier spoke.

"The girl from yesterday, Yui-chan... how has she been...?"

Asuna met glances with Kirito, and replied with a smile.

"Yui has... returned to her home..."

She softly moved the finger on her right hand to her breast. There, a thin necklace, which had not been there till yesterday, gleamed. At the tip of the exquisite silver chains, a pendant, of silver as well, hung down, with a large clear gem shining within it. Brushing the teardrop-shaped jewel gently, a slight warmth seemed to have spread to her fingertips.

At that time—

After Yui was covered in light and vanished, beside Asuna, her tears falling endlessly as she knelt on the stone paving, Kirito gave a sudden shout.

"Cardinal!!"

Raising his moist face, Kirito gazed at the ceiling of the room and screamed.

"Don't you dare think that it'll always... go as you like!!"

Firmly pulling himself together, he abruptly jumped at the black console in the middle of the room. He dexterously struck at the holo-keyboard still displayed. Her surprise pushing away her sorrow for just an instant, Asuna cried out as she looked on in wonder.

"Ki-Kirito-kun... What are...!?"

"If it's still... If it's still now, I might be able to intrude into the system with a GM account..."

Before Kirito's eyes, continuing to hit the keys as he muttered, a huge window appearance with a beep, and the radiance from the strings of characters rapidly scrolling past illuminated the room. While Asuna watched over him dumbfounded, Kirito entered in several more commands in succession. A small progress bar window appeared, and at the moment the horizontal bar reached all the way to the right end—

The whole of the console made from the black rock suddenly flashed bluish-white, and immediately following that, Kirito was sent flying with an explosive sound.

"Ki-Kirito-kun!!"

Panicking, she inched up to him, fallen onto the floor.

Shaking his head as he pulled his upper body up, Kirito gave a thin smile within his haggard expression; he faced towards Asuna and extended his closed right hand. Not understanding what was going on, Asuna followed suit, holding out her hand.

What had fallen from Kirito's hand into Asuna's was a large crystal made in the shape of a tear. In the middle of the elaborately faceted stone, thump, thump, a white light was blinking.

"Th-This is...?"

"...Before the root authorization activated by Yui was cut off, I desperately tried to disconnect Yui's program source from the system, and converted it into an object... Within that, Yui's heart is there..."

After having said just that, Kirito tumbled onto the ground, as though he ran out of energy, and closed his eyes.

"Yui-chan... you're... in there, huh... My... Yui-chan..."

Once again, her tears poured out endlessly. Within that blurred light, as if to answer Asuna, from the center of the crystal, it twinkled with a single strong thump.

They reluctantly waved towards Sasha, Yulier, Thinker, and the children, and the cool wind, infused with the scent of the forest, greeted Asuna and Kirito as they returned to the twenty-second floor from the teleport gate. Though it was a mere three day trip, it felt much longer than that, and Asuna took a deep breath of air.

What a vast world—

Asuna thought about this mysterious floating world once more. On each and every one of these countless layers, there were people living on them, passing each day with tears and laughter. No, painful events were likely to be more common for most of those people. But still, everyone continued fighting their own battles day after day.

The place where I should be...

Asuna gazed over the path leading to their home, then looked up at the base of the floor above.

—Let's return to the frontlines, she suddenly thought.

In the near future, I cannot help but take up my sword once again and return to my own battlefield. I do not know how much longer it will take, but I will fight until this world is finished, to let everyone show their true smiles once again. To grant happiness to everyone— That was what Yui had wished for.

"Hey, Kirito-kun."

"Hmm?"

"If the game is cleared and this world is gone, what will happen to Yui-chan?"

"Aah... Well, it might be stretching the capacity a little. I've converted her to a part of environmental data for the client program and saved her into my Nerve Gear's local memory. On the other side, it might be quite difficult to unpack it as Yui... but it should be possible somehow."

"I see."

Asuna turned her body about and hugged Kirito tightly.

"Well then, let's be sure to meet up with Yui-chan again on the other side. Our very first child."

"Yeah. Definitely."

Asuna looked down at the glittering crystal in between the couple's chests. Mama, do your best... She seemed to hear that faint voice from deep in her ears.

(End)

View the next article to read Chapter 4 and thx

Sword Art Online Light Novels

Sword Art Online Volume 2 Chapter 3 ( Side Story )

Sword Art Online Light Novels

- Volume 2 : SAO Side Story Aincrad

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Prologue - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

Morning Dew Girl (Aincrad 22nd Floor, October 2024)

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Part 4

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Sword Art Online Light Novels

Sword Art Online Volume 2 Chapter 3 ( Side Story )

Sword Art Online Light Novels

- Volume 2 : SAO Side Story Aincrad

- You can see sword art online Volume 2 just :

Volume 2

Prologue - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

Morning Dew Girl (Aincrad 22nd Floor, October 2024)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

View the next article to read Chapter 4 and thx

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